Fort Worth, TX, October 8, 2003—For the first time in its history, the Amon Carter Museum library is open to the public. The library welcomes visitors, researchers, and the casual reader on Wednesdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Other hours are available by appointment.

An initial collection of approximately 4,000 books assembled by Amon G. Carter during his lifetime has grown by more than tenfold in the last 40 years to a library numbering 40,000 volumes, 800 periodical titles (150 current subscriptions) and 100,000 microforms. The museum also recently signed an agreement with the Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, in Washington, D.C., to become an associated repository of the Archives' unrestricted microfilm. The Carter's library has become one of the premiere American art research facilities in the United States in its relatively brief existence.

"With the new Archives of American Art program in place, the Carter's library is poised to take its place among the leading centers for the study of American art and culture," says Librarian Allen Townsend. "Making the library's resources more accessible locally also supports the Amon Carter Museum's founding principles as set forth in Mr. Carter's will.

The library's non-circulating collections reflect the Carter's art collecting and exhibition history, with particular strengths in the art of the American West, the history of North American western expansion, American photography, and a range of materials related to the history of American art and culture from colonial times through the mid-20th century, including some of the finest examples of 19th- and 20th-century illustrated books. A collection of periodicals is also included, with numerous 19th-century newspapers on microfilm and a vertical file collection of material on artists (more than 7,500 names), museums, commercial galleries, and other art-related subjects. Archival collections include the museum's institutional records in addition to several special collections. An array of CD-ROM and web-based databases supplements these printed resources and is available to library reading-room visitors.

The Amon Carter Museum holds one of the world's finest collections of American art, from the first landscape painters of the 1820s through the great modernists of the early 20th century. The collection includes famous works from the early 19th century to the present that depict the land and people of the trans-Mississippi West. The museum also presents a display, on a continually rotating basis, of one of the most important collections of American photography to be seen anywhere.

The Star-Telegram is the official print sponsor of the Amon Carter Museum.