Woodson Research Center

Woodson Research Center is an archive located in the Fondren Library of Rice University in Houston, Texas. The Center is named for Benjamin N. Woodson and houses the special collections of Rice University's Fondren Library which includes rare books, manuscripts, and the Rice University archives.

The mission statement is as follows: "The Woodson Research Center supports the institutional, research and public service programs of Rice University. The Woodson preserves official university records, rare books, and manuscripts and makes them all available to Rice faculty, students, and alumni, as well as local, national, and international researchers. Woodson Research Center’s strong service tradition and commitment to technology enhance access to and aid in the preservation of rare materials and facilitate long-distance study and teaching."

Woodson contains more than 475 manuscript collections focused on the history of Texas and the greater Houston area, politics, entrepreneurship, and oil and gas. Other subject areas include American Civil War history, hip hop/rap music-related materials from the Swishahouse record label, science, and literary authors with Rice connections. Also in the Center are the papers of Rice University faculty members and alumni with achievements in the humanities, sciences, engineering, and the arts.

Personal collections include the papers of the scientist Julian Huxley, his wife Juliette Huxley, and his brother Aldous Huxley. The Americas collection documents the 19th and 20th century political and cultural relationships between North, Central, and South America.

20th century materials include the papers and oral histories of Texas liberal Democratic politicians; the papers of the author of the Marshall Plan, William L. Clayton; Oveta Culp Hobby papers; Larry McMurtry papers; Gus Wortham family and business papers; Brown and Root company records, and George and Herman Brown papers. The Woodson holds papers of such prominent Texas families as Autry, Fondren, Hamman, Hutcheson, Lovett, Masterson, Sharp, Townsend and Watkin. Oil and gas related collections include Panhandle Eastern and several smaller companies.

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