UPbeat Winter 2020

Page 12

CAMPUS VIEW

Stories and photos by Tim Cohrs

Preserving history’s back pages Gray Library’s Special Collections houses Lamar, SETX archives When most people exit the elevator on Gray Library’s seventh floor, they often turn left to the study floor without thinking. But if one turns right, one enters a world of more than 20,000 books, artifacts and memorabilia. Lamar University’s special collections department is a repository for more than a million manuscripts, photos, books and other historical documents, not only regarding PAGE 12 • WINTER 2020

Lamar history, but also Southeast Texas and world history. The department was founded during former LU president John Gray’s second tenure as president, and the effort was headed by two librarians, Maxine Johnston and Lois Parker. Special collections was inspired by the Browning Collection at Baylor University in Waco, which Gray visited and admired, Penny Clark, special collections librarian, said. He asked then library director Maxine Johnston if Lamar could build a similar collection to give the library visibility and attract scholars. However, the library did not have the funding, personnel and resources to develop such a collection. But there was a ready-made source of interest already in place. “(Johnston) and Lois Parker had been

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