The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History has been up to the middle of 2017 a research archive. It has, however, been reconfigured to include museum galleries with exhibits drawn primarily from its collections. As of this writing (August 2017), there are two excellent exhibits. The first one Exploring the American South (on view through September 17, 2017) is an excellent overview of how settlers viewed and expanded their reach from the southeastern coastal areas (Georgia, Virginia, and the Carolinas) of the South to the Mississippi territory in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Thoughtfully illustrated with documents and artifacts, the exhibits cover not only military and commercial expansion, it also addresses divisive social issues through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and right up to twentieth-century events. The exhibit also gives a brief overview of the Natchez Trace, a pioneering settlement route to the Mississippi territory prior to the advent of steamboat navigation on the Mississippi River, which made this visitor want to read more about this not-widely known aspect of American history. The second exhibit, thankfully a permanent one, is From Commemoration to Education: Pompeo Coppini's Statue of Jefferson Davis. The exhibit covers the origins, planning, execution, and controversies surrounding the Littlefield memorials on the University of Texas at Austin campus. The statues, most of them of Civil War figures from the South, along with the central fountain were the idea in 1919 of George Washington Littlefield, a Confederate veteran and prominent university donor. For the past almost 50 years, the statues have been an object of controversy which led last year to the removal to the museum of the Jefferson Davis statue and which led, two short days after my August 2017 visit, to the removal of the remaining Civil War statues including the one of Robert E. Lee. Many of these statues will be placed in the collection of the center. For those interested, as we all should, in the current (Summer of 2017) controversy over the removal of Confederate monuments from public venues and the issue of whether or not this is an affront to our sense of American history, the exhibit at the Dolph Briscoe Center is a measured, carefully researched example of the historian's craft which all Americans should visit. And added plus is that right next door is the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. One fact to highlight is that the Dolph Briscoe Center exhibits are free while the LBJ Museum charges admission to its museum exhibits (use of the LBJ archives for historical research is free.)

This is a smaller history center adjacent to the LBJ Library. Worth a look. Has an interesting current history about Black Americans in early US history. Also has a research library. Friendly, helpful staff.

Reading room does not have free WiFi; I think it is the only research facility I have ever used that did not!

I thought the Briscoe Center would have a lot to see. That is not the case. The have 1 rotating exhibit that takes about 20 minutes to go through. It is mainly a place to do research work on American History. It is right near the LBJ Library and you park in the same lot on the UT campus.