LUBBOCK, Texas (KFDA) – The Museum at Texas Tech University first started in 1929 as an idea from the West Texas Museum Association.
“They were very excited about it and they wanted to have a museum here, particularly on the Texas Tech campus,” said Dr. Aaron Pan, executive director.
The museum is a major resource for the community.
The 200,000 square-foot covers several topics, including anthropology, art, clothing, textiles, history, natural sciences and technology.
The Museum at Texas Tech University first started in 1929 as an idea from the West Texas Museum Association.(kfda)
“There’s basically something for everybody,” said Pan. “We have a really large collection. We’re actually one of the largest collections in the United States with close to almost 10 million objects and specimens.”
Pan says museums and cultural institutions offer a wonderful story about understanding the region to visitors.
“We live in a material world, so you’re part of that, you can read something, you can kind of understand. You can maybe sort of picture scale. But when you actually see a large Quetzalcoatlus in front of you and seeing the size of it that is the size of an F-16, see what it looks like compared to you, that’s pretty impressive,” said Pan.
It’s one thing to read or see artifacts on a digital page. It’s another to see the details and how things were made in person.
The Museum at Texas Tech University first started in 1929 as an idea from the West Texas Museum Association.(KFDA)
Pan says part of why the museum covers so many different topics is because of a master’s program teaching future museum professionals.
As visitors walk in, they first see the large dinosaur skeletons on display.
“But what’s relaly great is I think that they’re really surprised as they walk in and they have an idea of what they’re going to see here, and they turn the corner and it’s a very different subject. It’s a fantastic topic that they didn’t really think about,” said Pan.
Pan says some visitors came to the musuem specifically for the dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures and ended up falling in love with the art pieces.
The Museum at Texas Tech University first started in 1929 as an idea from the West Texas Museum Association.(KFDA)
“I’ve seen people who are only here for the art and then they found something fantastic within our historical collections,” said Pan. “So it’s really exciting around, there’s always something new around the corner.”
The Museum at Texas Tech University is located at 3301 4th St.
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