News Release — January 25, 2008

The Wittliff Collections

Southwestern Writers Collection and Wittliff Gallery
Now The Wittliff Collections at the Alkek Library

The Southwestern Writers Collection and Wittliff Gallery are now The Wittliff Collections at the Alkek Library, Texas State University-San Marcos. We have already begun to put the new name into use, and ask for your assistance in solidifying its recognition among the public.

When the Southwestern Writers Collection was founded by Austin screenwriter and photographer Bill Wittliff and his wife Sally at the university library in 1986, its collecting activities focused on the literature, film, and music of the region. Within the next few years the repository of photographs of the Southwest and Mexico began to form, and in 1996 the Wittliff Gallery of Southwestern & Mexican Photography was formally christened.

Each collection, although operating as one organization within Texas State, continued to function separately for the most part in terms of archival activities, exhibitions, and public programming. However, it became increasingly complicated to explain how each repository was separate, but not separate.

Now, in an effort to convey the composite nature of the collections, unite them under a common name, and acknowledge the great and generous contributions of the founding donors, the two counterparts will be known officially as: The Wittliff Collections.