Nolan Moore, Courtesy of the Moffett Library, MSU. Photograph by Loganne Featherstone (2017).

Nolan A. Moore III was born in Wichita Falls in 1942, was a native Wichitan for most of his life and even attended MSU for some time during his undergraduate years. Moore spent over 25 years as the executive of the Printing Industries Association of Texas. He was nationally known as a leader in the print industry and built the company up from 61 members to 1,180. Throughout his life he traveled all 50 states along with 50 other countries collecting works for his history of print exhibits.

His major collection, The Heritage of Print collection, is now housed in the Moffett library at Midwestern State University. The collection focuses on the transformation of the human race through written language. There are rare items and first editions from important historical time periods including Sumerian cuneiform tablets, a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, a large compilation of some of the first newspaper publications and even modern comic books.  Moore’s final will was for the collection to be passed down to a small non-profit organization and his family’s final decision was MSU. The collection is on display in the Special Collection’s room on the second floor of the Moffett Library. Moore made it clear the respect he had for the history and evolution of human communication. He felt strongly that Western civilization owes a lot to the power of early written language and print.

 

 

Sources:
Unpublished collection guide for the Nolan A. Moore III Collection, Moffat Library, Midwestern State University.