Austin History Center
The Austin History Center is an archive that collects and preserves records that show how people lived, worked, and shaped their community in Austin and Travis County.
Collections
How many items do you have in the collection?
Our collections continue to grow, offering many opportunities for online and much more for in person discovery. The collections contain:
- more than 15,000 linear feet of physical materials—over 270 million unique items
- more than 28,000 GB of digital materials, representing about 5.6 million items.
Austin History Center Archives Collection Catalog (ArchivesSpace)
Austin History Center Archives Collection Catalog (ArchivesSpace)
Search guides to more than 1,700 Austin History Center archival collections. Guides identify the people, families, organizations, or government departments that created each collection and include subjects, material types, descriptions, and detailed inventories.
Austin History Center Digital Collections (Preservica)
Austin History Center Digital Collections (Preservica)
Access thousands of digitized items, photos, documents, oral history recordings, videos, and maps from the AHC archives, with more added each week.
In-Person Exhibits
In Circulation: A Century of the Austin Public Library
In Circulation: A Century of the Austin Public Library
September 22, 2026
- April 22, 2027
Austin History Center, Faulk Building - 800 Guadalupe St.
About the Exhibit
To celebrate Austin Public Library’s Centennial, we’re presenting In Circulation: A Century of the Austin Public Library, an exhibit tracing APL’s evolution from its early reading room to a citywide institution shaped by advocacy, public service, and community participation. Through archival photos, timelines, architectural history, and stories of access and civic change, the exhibit highlights how APL has influenced Austin’s cultural and public life over the past century.
About the Artist
For questions or the latest information about exhibits and collections, contact Austin.HistoryCenter@austintexas.gov.
Image credit
Digital Exhibits
Treat Me Like a Saturday Night: The Joe Ely Photographs from the Cindy Light Collection
About the Exhibit
Cindy Light is an Austin-based photographer who shot many performances of Austin musicians such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Ely, and Doug Sahm as well as international acts such as Sting, Michael Jackson, and Paul McCartney. This exhibit highlights photos from her collection (AR.2019.016) that span 1986-1990 and primarily feature Joe Ely with bandmates David Grissom, Jimmy Pettit, and Davis McLarty who represent Ely’s late 1980s – early 1990s heyday.
Vietnam to Austin: Restoring Community
About the Exhibit
Explore the history, transition, and contributions of local Vietnamese Americans in Austin. This exhibit presents a selection of powerful personal stories and photographs from the original large-scale 2009 exhibition.