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Who is Mary Couts Burnett?

The story of the library's namesake, Mary Couts Burnett, is at once tragic, poignant and heroic. Born in 1856, she was one of five daughters of Colonel James Robertson Couts, a prominent banker and rancher in Parker County. The Colonel is known to have been an admirer of Addison Clark who, with his brother Randolph, founded in Thorp Spring the school which would eventually become Texas Christian University.

Raised in Weatherford, Mary first married Claude Barradel and was widowed. After Barradel's untimely death she was wooed and won by wealthy cattleman S. Burk Burnett, himself a widower. The one child born to the couple, S. Burk Burnett, Jr., died as a young man.

By 1920 the relationship between husband and wife had grown tense and Mrs. Burnett expressed fears that her husband was trying to kill her. Burnett claimed in court that his wife was suffering from "hallucinations" and won a sanity judgement against her. He was further successful in having her committed to a limited asylum in a private Weatherford home where she was kept virtually a prisoner until she engineered her own release on the very day, in 1923, of Burk Burnett's death. With the aid of her physician she then set about to free herself and to obtain her "widow's half"—Texas being a community property state—of the estate which Burnett had actually willed almost entirely to his granddaughter, Anne Burnett. She succeeded in both these efforts.

Then, in December of 1923, she surprised and shocked TCU by informing the university it would receive nearly her entire estate in trust—something over $3 million (equivalent to about $53 million in 2023 dollars). Before this moment, Mrs. Burnett had no known ties with or interest in the university. One story has it that Burk Burnett, a notoriously rough-edged character, had plainly expressed that no church or school would ever get any of his money so that Mary's gesture may have been one of defiance towards her late husband.

Though she did not live to see it fully completed before her death, she was driven past the library building which would bear her name when construction was well advanced in 1924.

TCU Library milestones

1873

AddRan Male and Female College opens in Thorp Spring

1874

AddRan Literary Society develops a small collection of books

1877

Major John T. Walton donates 300 books to Walton Literary Society

1889

Name of school becomes AddRan Christian University

1892

Edwin J. Toof of New Haven, Connecticut, gives the University 1,045 books; a library is formed from these three collections

1895

AddRan Christian University relocates to Waco; library of 2,044 volumes is valued at $3,000

1898

Library is designated a U.S. government document depository

1902

Name of school is changed to Texas Christian University; Mabel Grey Crosse is named as first librarian

1904

Mrs. M.B.M. Gibbons succeeds Miss Crosse

1905

Book collection is cataloged by Dewey Decimal Classification system

1906

Mrs. E.C. Boynton becomes librarian

1908

Nell Andrew, Mrs. Boynton’s successor, becomes the first librarian of long tenure

1910

The Library Association, an organization to promote the general interest of the library, is formed on February 10; fire on March 22 destroys the Main Building housing the library of 8,000 volumes valued at $15,000; TCU moves to Fort Worth and holds classes in downtown building; students use the Fort Worth Carnegie Library

1911

TCU moves to present campus; library is 24’ x 36’ room on second floor of the Main Building

1915

Earliest annual report of the library shows 4,716 volumes

1916

Library is re-designated a U.S. government document depository due to move to move to new Congressional District

1923

The University announces the Mary Couts Burnett gift in December; $150,000 is designated for the library building

1925

Mary Couts Burnett Library is dedicated on February 27; holdings number 30,000 at the time; Nell Andrew resigns; Arthur Curry becomes fifth librarian

1932

With the Great Depression, enrollment drops dramatically and book budget is cut to $100

1938

Bertie Hall Mothershead, acting librarian since 1933, is named sixth librarian

1943

North Texas Regional Union List of Serials is published—the first library cooperative effort in the region

1949

Fine Arts Library opens in Ed Landreth Hall

1953

C. Glenn Sparks becomes seventh librarian

1955

William Luther Lewis Collection of English and American Literature, gift of the Amon G. Carter Foundation, is dedicated on May 27

1957

Construction begins on library addition

1958

First printed library handbook for students is prepared

1959

Library building first expansion is dedicated on March 5; holdings number 330,000

1963

Sunday library hours are instituted

1964

Library Committee of Inter-university Council of Dallas and Fort Worth Metropolitan Areas holds first meeting; Library holdings pass the half-million mark

1965

Paul Parham becomes University Librarian (eighth librarian)

1970

Computerized circulation operation begins on July 14, marking advent of technology in the library’s operations

1971

Pate Presidential Collection on the American presidency

1972

Friends of the TCU Libraries is organized on January 28; Committee to plan the expansion of the library is appointed in November

1973

Library’s Centennial gift to the University is the completion of reclassification of book collection by the Library of Congress system, begun in 1966

1974

Contract signed with Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) provides access to shared cataloging database

1978

Computer database searching becomes part of reference service

1981

Froissart’s Cronycles is added as library’s millionth item in January; Ground is broken on April 11 for library addition

1983

Expanded Mary Couts Burnett Library, designed by Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, is dedicated on March 25

1984

Abell Antique Map Collection given to Special Collections

1986

Pate-Newcomer Collection on the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

1987

Dr. Fred Heath becomes University Librarian (ninth librarian)

1988

First CD-ROM databases

1989

Implementation of library’s first Integrated Library System (ILS); Speaker James C. Wright, Jr. Archives

1990

TCU registers the internet domain name “tcu.edu” and the library’s first website follows

1991

Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Archives; Library begins use of leased storage in downtown Fort Worth

1993

Library offers access to research databases on the Internet; users with modems can access databases and library catalog 24/7; Bob Seal becomes Library Dean (tenth librarian)

1997

Annual Library Staff Excellence Award funded by the Friends of the TCU Library

1997

Library begins computer support for local Cultural District Library Consortium (CDLC) museum libraries

1999

Library acquires the Amon G. Carter, Jr. Collection

2000

Bistro Burnett dedicated by Chancellor Michael R. Ferrari; Jack B. Friedman Judaic Collection

2001

Library implements Information Commons

2002

Luxembourg ambassador presents gift of Bertrand Ney’s Between Two Rings sculpture; Marvin and Jan Gearhart Reading Room dedication; W.B. “Judge” Hamilton Audio Visual Center

2005

Frog Pods with Student Government Association (SGA) funding added to the Information Commons; Library accepts electronic dissertations and theses from TCU graduate students

2006

Dr. June Koelker becomes Library Dean (eleventh librarian)

2008

Library begins 24-hour service, 5 days a week; Library makes streaming videos available

2009

First compact shelving installed

2013

Library Annex opens as a permanent off-campus, high-density storage site

2015

Dedication of the newly renovated Mary Couts Burnett Library; Sumner Academic Heritage Room

Information from Walking TCU: A Historic Perspective by Joan Hewatt Swaim. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1992; Prologue: The TCU Library to 1983 by Betsy Feagan Colquitt. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1983; and the TCU Library Dedication booklet, 2015.