It features collections in anthropology, fine arts, clothing and textiles, history, natural sciences and paleontology.

The museum called the basement home until 1950, when the entire building was finally completed thanks to $184,381 allocated to the project from the veterans' program surplus in 1948.

For a time, the site was operated in conjunction with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The following year, it moved into a new $2.5 million facility on a seventy-six-acre tract, and its former building, Holden Hall, was converted into classrooms and office space.

[2][3] In June 2023, the Museum of Texas Tech University expanded with the opening of the 18,000 ft2 Dr. Robert Neff and Louise Willson Arnold Wing.

The construction expansion project consisted of three floors: a ground floor that added nearly 4,000 square feet of new gallery space to exhibit the Arnold's art collection and temporary exhibitions of regional and national art, a second floor that provided offices and laboratories for Texas Tech's Heritage and Museum Sciences Graduate Program, and a basement area to house collection storage for the Arnold’s art collection and other fine art at the Museum.