Who we are

The Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin is one of the nation’s leading research centers for historical inquiry.

The Briscoe Center’s archives, museums, and historic buildings document the people, places, events, and ideas that have helped shape the United States. Researchers working with original, primary source materials preserved at the center reveal valuable clues to the secrets of the past. The center’s vast collection includes the most significant assemblage of Texas-related materials, one of the top three archives on the American South, unmatched holdings on news media history and photography, the largest collection of congressional records outside of Washington, D.C., and the official archive of The University of Texas, among others. 

An active place of learning, the center facilitates the use of its collections in teaching and research to help ensure that discussions Americans have concerning their identities, origins, and values remain rooted in historical evidence. The Briscoe Center is committed to making it possible for students and researchers to examine primary sources, form questions, seek evidence, and deepen their understanding of the American story.

How you can help

Thanks to friends like you, last year the center successfully launched the Expanding Digital Access Project! Your gifts created a digitization lab with essential new equipment and provided seed funding for the first Digital Collections Internship. This fall, we unveiled a new online portal with enhanced search capabilities to access the center’s ever-growing digital collections. 

Now, the center needs your help to increase the number of Digital Collections Interns working with the archives each year. These students work with the Briscoe Center’s professional staff to review and select items, assist with imaging, and create detailed item descriptions. 

Our goal from today through the end of December is to raise $30,000 to fund two, one-year internships. Your gift, in any amount, helps provide students with valuable learning experiences and expand the number of items available in the center’s digital collections. 

• $5,000 supports one student for one semester 
• $15,000 supports one student for a full year
• $30,000 supports two students for a full year 
• $90,000 supports six students for a full year — our optimal annual class size of Digital Collections Interns

Naming opportunities are available for donors interested in funding an internship in perpetuity. Contact Lisa Avra at l.avra@austin.utexas.edu to learn more.

Gillian Morton, a 2021 intern with the Jack Brooks Digital Legacy Project, at work creating metadata for recently digitized items.

 

Your impact

Without records, there is no history. Online access to the historical evidence in the center's collections is critically important for teaching and research. The Briscoe Center's collections help faculty and students develop new knowledge, and writers and filmmakers create works to enlighten and entertain. Your gift to the Expanding Digital Access Project helps make the Briscoe Center's vast resources available to people located in any part of the world.  

Digital collections: 

• allow researchers to access the center’s materials from any location; 
• help researchers prepare for efficient onsite visits;
• increase research access to the collections, including large-scale artifacts;
• reduce the number of times fragile documents and artifacts are physically handled; 
• capture an item’s condition for preservation reference; and 
• give students studying archival enterprises valuable training and experience.