About the Museum

The Museum of Texas Tech University is an extraordinary facility housing a diverse range of collections not normally found in one museum. The Museum's collections number more than eight million objects in:

• anthropology
• fine arts
• clothing and textiles
• history
• natural sciences
• paleontology

The Museum is committed to serving the diverse region surrounding Lubbock, Texas by offering a range of exhibitions and public programming. Visitors, however, come from across the US and around the world. The Museum is a non-profit institution with free admission.

The Museum was founded in 1929 as the West Texas Museum, just four years after the creation of what was then known as Texas Technological College. It was founded as a community museum and a research institution and the Museum of Texas Tech University continues that dual purpose today. The Museum has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums since 1990. Only 3 percent of the nation's nearly 35,000 museums are accredited, with an even smaller percentage of university museums having that national designation.

The Museum's Natural Science Research Laboratory maintains major natural history collections of mammals, birds, invertebrates, and genetic resources. These collections are available to researchers at academic, scientific, and government institutions around the world for scientific investigation, discovery and problem-solving in the natural sciences.

The Lubbock Lake Landmark, a National Historic Landmark, is an internationally known archaeological and natural history preserve containing an extensive cultural, plant, and animal record of life on the Southern Plains dating back 12,000 years.

The Museum also is home to the Master of Arts in Heritage and Museum Sciences that offers students the opportunity to study a broad spectrum of theory and practice in both museum science and heritage management.