Eugene C. Barker

Who was Eugene C. Barker?

Eugene Campbell Barker was a distinguished professor of Texas history at the University of Texas at Austin. He was the first living person to have a UT campus building, the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center, named in his honor. The structure is part of the Center for American History and was relocated in 1971 to Sid Richardson Hall. Barker was renowned for his scholarship, research, classroom teaching, and in the formation of both the Texas State Historical Association and the American Historical Association.

The Eugene C. Barker Texas History Collection was authorized in 1945 and opened to researchers in 1950. It includes books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, photographs, broadsides, and recordings. It is the most extensive collection of Texas-related material in existence. The collection also houses the Eugene Campbell Barker Papers, which cover the period from 1812, his earliest research materials, until 1959, three years after his death.