Cushing Memorial Library & Archives
Texas A&M University Libraries

Scope

The Human Experience Collection broadly documents the social, cultural, physical, political, and historical expressions of human life across time and geography. This policy governs the acquisition and development of interdisciplinary holdings designed to support teaching, scholarly research, and general inquiry across Texas A&M University and the global research community. The collection integrates several foundational subject areas:

  • Africana Studies: Supports interdisciplinary research on the social, cultural, political, and economic expressions of people across the African Diaspora. It directly supports the Africana Studies minor in the Department of Global Languages & Cultures and related campus disciplines.
  • Boxing, Sports, and Martial Arts: Holdings related to global competitive, professional, and amateur physical culture. Core components include rare boxiana, pugilistic, and fistiana documents (1743–1968); martial arts materials (1930–2012) documenting East Asian and American martial arts traditions; and boxing collections (1897–2001) documenting contemporary boxing history.
  • Hispanic Studies: Supports research and teaching in Global Languages & Cultures, History, Sociology, English, and Latino/a and Mexican-American Studies. As a federally recognized Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), Texas A&M maintains these holdings to document Hispanic-American, Mexican, and global Hispanic experiences, which reflect historical, economic, and cultural connections with Texas.  
  • Women’s and Gender Studies (W&GS): Supports multidisciplinary research across the humanities and social sciences. It documents the history, social status, and contributions of women and LGBTQ+ individuals.

Types of Materials Collected

The Human Experience Collection prioritizes materials from the mid-19th century to the present, alongside older rare foundational items. Primary language foci include English, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese, though materials in other foreign languages are acquired based on scholarly value.

  • Primary Sources:  Rare contemporary periodicals/monographs, archival manuscript collections, government and religious records, broadsides, hand-colored prints, personal family papers, correspondence, diaries, organizational records, photographic collections, trade cards, oral histories, audio-visual materials, objects/artifacts, and ephemera.
  • Secondary Sources: Published academic and popular histories, biographies, literary works, dissertations, documentary media, and critical analyses across print and digital formats.

Collection Strengths

  • Africana Studies: Archives of the Civil Rights, Black Power, and radical movements; Black superheroes and pop culture collections; documentation of enslavement, abolition, and early Black communities.
  • Boxing & Martial Arts: Rare British/European Boxiana; foundational English-language writings, correspondence, and photos on T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Pa-kua, and Hsing-i; boxing programs, posters, and fighter statistics.
  • Hispanic Studies: Holdings documenting the Hispanic-American and Mexican-American social, political, and cultural experience, alongside materials tracing Mexican history and borderlands heritage. Materials from Argentina include recordings of the literary and cultural affairs program, Los Palabristas.
  • Women’s & Gender Studies: Research materials documenting the LGBTQ+ community, including literature and culture; TAMU campus history (faculty papers, founding program materials, Supreme Court case archives); literary and media collections; historical materials; legal papers documenting judicial history.

Current Collecting Foci

Cushing Library acquires historical and contemporary materials across the primary areas of the Human Experience Collection, reflecting our current collection strengths. Potential acquisitions are evaluated through a curatorial review process to determine their relevance, significance, and alignment with the collection’s scope and priorities. Materials that meet these criteria may be added to the collection as opportunities arise. 

Institutional Repository & Digitization Projects

Digitization efforts expand access to high-demand primary sources within the Human Experience Collection or other collections with Cushing Memorial Library & Archives:

  • The Cherokee Freedmen Collection: Digitized records (1900–1907) comprising over 500 interviews, testimonies, and affidavits from Dawes Commission applications filed at Fort Gibson and Muskogee, Oklahoma.
  • Toward a Better Living: African American Farming Communities in Mid-Century Texas: Searchable database of nearly 7,000 photographs (1930s–1970s) from the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, documenting rural African American life, agriculture, and livestock programs.  

Connections to Other Collections

  • Ragan Military Collection
  • Dykes Rangeland Collection
  • Science Fiction & Fantasy Research Collection
  • Chapman Texas & Borderlands Collection
  • Colonial Mexican Collection
  • University Archives