The museum's collections, in three major divisions-artifacts, archives, and natural history-are a record of the prehistory, history, and natural history of South Texas. The artifact collections are related to the history of the ordinary man in South Texas. These collections include more than 900 branding irons, a multigenerational apparel and textile collection with items ranging from hand-sewn corset covers to miniskirts, and a collection of pre-Columbian pottery, ceramics, and effigies. An extensive collection of blacksmith, farrier, and wheelwright tools includes more than 100 different tongs, farm machinery designed to be drawn by mules, hand tools, ranching tools, and equipment ranging from fence stretchers to a chuckwagon. There are also early oilfield tools and scale models of refineries. Some 400 weapons and 50,000 Indian artifacts are in the collection. The museum's collections of South Texas biological specimens were combined in 1981 with those of the university's biology department.