Founded at Texas State University-San Marcos by Austin screenwriter and photographer Bill Wittliff and his wife Sally, these repositories are devoted to preserving a creative legacy that will instruct and inspire the current generation as well as those to come, illuminating the artistic process and testifying to the importance of the southwestern and Mexican imagination in the wider world.

Primary to the mission is the safekeeping and sharing of the Southwest’s literature, film, and music, and the photography of the Southwest and Mexico through the acquisition of significant archives and supplementary materials.

Strongly committed to professional stewardship of all materials, and to personal service and timely access for scholars and researchers, the Wittliff Collections are equally dedicated to engaging the public and educating students. Among many other activities, the Collections publish two book series, present in-house and traveling exhibitions from the archives, welcome tours and classes, and host lectures, readings, and symposia in southwestern-inspired public rooms on the seventh floor of the Alkek Library.

Each year, thousands of students, researchers, and visitors engage with the Wittliff Collections’ treasured holdings, and through them discover how the unique conditions and character of a region — that “spirit of place” — shapes its people, their culture, and their creative arts.