Archives in Special Collections focus on three general subject areas:

Contains archival material from hundreds of union locals and labor councils, statewide labor organizations, union political groups, district and regional offices of international unions, and legal firms specializing in labor law, as well as the personal papers of union officials. Collections range in date from 1870 to the present. Augmenting the archival collections are oral history interviews with more than 150 men and women union leaders or labor activists.

Concentrates on 20th century political officials from the North and Central Texas area. Two additions to the Texas Political History Collection are a series of interviews by Dr. Allan Saxe with prominent Arlington politicians and another series focusing on Mexican-American leaders in Texas conducted by Dr. José Ángel Gutiérrez.

Special Collections is also the repository for the records of enduring historical value of The University of Texas at Arlington. These records comprise the University Archives and include material from the University's seven forerunner schools, beginning with Arlington College, a private institution founded in 1895.

Finding Aids, inventories, and descriptions are available for many of the archival collections. All collections are listed and described in the 2000 edition of A Guide to Archives and Manuscript Collections in the Special Collections Division at The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries. An electronic version is available online and a loose-leaf addendum to the Guide is available at the Special Collections reference desk. Most of the collections have been cataloged and appear in OCLC and the UT Arlington Library Catalog.

If you have questions about collections in the University Archives, please contact Gary Spurr at spurr@uta.edu or (817) 272-7511.