Many people have had time recently to clean out closets and storage areas in their home. If you have found old scrapbooks, letters, photos, books, art, home movies (the kind on reels or the kind you play in a VCR) or records of local businesses or organizations, DON’T THROW THEM AWAY—please get in touch with UNT Special Collections!

While we are unable physically meet with you until campus reopens, we are happy to talk via phone or zoom meeting about what you have and provide advice on safely preserving your collections. If you are interested in donating materials to our archive, we are happy to talk to you about our collecting interests and whether UNT Special Collections may be a good home for your materials.

The primary mission of the UNT Special Collections department is to collect and preserve unique and historically significant information. Here is a short list of what we collect and what we don’t collect. This list is not exhaustive, if you have something you would like to discuss with us that is not on this list please feel free to reach out to us at specialcollections@unt.edu.

Subjects & Materials Types We Collect

UNT Student Life

• Scrapbooks, letters, postcards, photographs from student’s time at UNT
• Records of student clubs and organizations
• Flyers and handbills from campus events and concerts

UNT Faculty

• Faculty research papers
• Manuscripts (published and unpublished)
• Correspondence

Texas History

• Texas maps
• 19th and 20th century photography and real photo postcards (especially when people and places are identified)
• Ephemera (ticket stubs, advertising pieces, labels, etc)
• Broadsides
• Pre-1850 books about Texas
• Pre-1900 books printed in Texas
• Books about Texas city and county history (old or current)
• Texas newspapers

Military History

• Letters
• Photos
• Audio/visual recordings
• Regiment or battalion ephemera (newsletters, booklets, menus, etc)

Women’s History

• Woman owned business records
• Women’s manuscripts and personal papers
• Records of clubs or organizations for women (meeting minutes, club handbooks, newsletters, etc.)

Latinx History

• Latinx owned business records
• Latinx manuscripts and personal papers
• Records of clubs or organizations for the Latinx community (meeting minutes, club handbooks, newsletters, etc.)

LGBTQ History

• LGBTQ owned business records
• LGBTQ manuscripts and personal papers
• Records of clubs or organizations for the LGBTQ community (meeting minutes, club handbooks, newsletters, etc.)

Personal Archives

• Home movies
• Family photos
• Genealogical records

Photography

• Examples of historical photography such as daguerreotype, tin type, carte de visite and cabinet cards
• Fine art photography
• Photographer’s collections of prints, slides, negatives or digital photography
• Books
• Records and ephemera related to the history of photography

Book and Printing History

• Books printed before 1800
• Books printed in the US before 1850
• First editions
• Signed editions
• Association copies
• Children’s books
• Pop-up and moveable books

Miniature Books

• Books 3 inches or smaller in spine height