A Collection on Texas and the American West - Introduction page1
12018-08-31T14:01:07-07:00Ginny Barnes3eee7f03172e35d4a55ee3f747d663b72f156868304372By Harold Billingsplain2018-10-08T21:55:46-07:00A Collection on Texas and the American West. On October 24th, 1975, the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System authorized the acquistion of a remarkable collection of materials dealing with Texas and the American West from the Jenkins Company of Austin. This collection of books, manuscripts, broadsides and maps formerly belonged to Edward Eberstadt & Sons, a famous New York bookseller. Assembled by Eberstadt over a period of seventy-five years, these materials represent part of the private stock of that firm--the finest copies and rarest titles set aside for the Eberstadt personal collection. In August of 1975, the Jenkins Company purchased the entire Eberstadt Collection of over 40,000 items dealing chiefly with American history, and in turn offered the items on Texas and the American West to the University of Texas.Ginny Barnes3eee7f03172e35d4a55ee3f747d663b72f156868
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1media/Billings_HRC.jpg2018-07-19T19:55:39-07:00Collection Development17image_header2018-10-11T18:52:45-07:00While an advocate for technological innovation, Billings still simultaneously continued to build the print and research collections at UT Libraries. A literary scholar himself, Billings' love of research and books carried over into his many roles over his career at UTL. He worked closely with Harry Ransom, who routinely commissioned Billings to purchase new materials for the collections throughout the 1960s and 70s, and sustained a good relationship between the general libraries and the Ransom Center as both continued to build their collections.
Literature was also a passion of Billings' that nicely complemented his efforts to contribute to the libraries' ever growing collection of research materials. He corresponded with many authors both in his personal endeavors in scholarship and in the process of bringing their materials into the collection. Years of letters from poet Jonathan Williams, now held in the Billings Papers at the Ransom Center, represent one such relationship as they worked together on projects involving a shared favorite poet, Edward Dahlberg, and Williams considered the proper home for his own papers.
With various acquisitions, Billings saw the library expand all of its collecting areas over the course of his career, from the 1 millionth volume added during his time as a cataloger onward.