Southwest Collection/Special Collections Archivist Appointed Texas State Historian

September 26, 2018

Monte L. Monroe will serve until Sept. 26, 2020.

Gov. Greg Abbott today (Sept. 26) appointed Texas Tech University faculty member Monte L. Monroe as the Texas State Historian.

In that role, Monroe is responsible for increasing public knowledge about the rich and diverse history of the state, encouraging the teaching of Texas history in public schools, consulting with state leaders to promote Texas history and making presentations on Texas history topics.

Monroe is the archivist for the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech. As a former editor of the West Texas Historical Review, he has taught and published widely on Texas history. He serves on the Texas Historical Records Advisory Board, the boards of the West and East Texas Historical Associations, is chairman of the Texas State Historical Association Archives Committee, is on the Executive Advisory Committee of the Handbook of Texas Women Online and is a former board member for the Texas Map Society.

He is a founding board member of the Humanities Center at Texas Tech, president of the Rotary Club of Lubbock Foundation, former president of the Downtown Rotary Club of Lubbock and president of The Meriwether Society, Inc. He was formerly Secretary General of the Pan American Taekwondo Union, an International Master Instructor and International Referee in Taekwondo, and officiated that sport at the Seoul and Barcelona Olympic Games.

Monroe received a bachelor's degree in literature and history from Stephen F. Austin State University and a master's degree and doctorate in history from Texas Tech.

His term as Texas State Historian lasts until Sept. 26, 2020.

tags: Academics, Libraries, Staff, Stories, provost

Texas Tech University

A new era of excellence is dawning at Texas Tech University as it stands on the cusp of being one of the nation's premier research institutions.

Research and enrollment numbers are at record levels, which cement Texas Tech's commitment to attracting and retaining quality students. In fall 2020, the university achieved a goal more than a decade in the making, reaching a total student population of more than 40,000. In 2018, the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education again placed Texas Tech among its top doctoral universities in the nation in the “Very High Research Activity” category. Texas Tech is one of 94 public institutions nationally and 131 overall to achieve this prestigious recognition.

Quality students need top-notch faculty. Texas Tech is home to a diverse, highly revered pool of educators who excel in teaching, research and service. The university strives to foster an environment that celebrates student accomplishment above all else. Texas Tech is large enough to provide the best in facilities and academics but prides itself on being able to focus on each student individually.

The momentum for excellence at Texas Tech has never been greater.

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Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library

The Board of Regents of then-Texas Technological College formally established the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library in 1955, but the librarys collection dates to the early years of Texas Tech.

The largest rare-book library in 130,000 square miles, the major historical repository and research center spans a 78,000-square-foot facility with climate-controlled stacks and pulls tens of thousands of individual items to answer research requests from all over the world. In total, the SWC/SCL houses 22 million historical items, including the master Coronelli globe, constructed in 1688 and once owned by William Randolph Hearst.

The SWC/SCL offers:

more than 1,600 manuscript collections
80,000 volumes related to the region
4,000 oral history interviews
nearly one million accessible photographs
1,500 newspaper and periodical titles
8,000 reels of microfilm and videotape

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