Having its own oil well (the drilling rig Santa Rita No. 1 on San Jacinto Blvd) has made the University of Texas one of the world's richest universities. Its unparalleled collection of manuscripts by contemporary authors is available to scholars amid tight security in the Harry Ransom Center ; stories abound of the sums lavished to acquire work from relative unknowns who might someday achieve fame. The Center, in the southwest corner of the campus, also houses an art gallery (MonFri 9am5pm, Sat 9amnoon; free), with a Gutenberg Bible as well as contemporary Latin American and American paintings. Student-guided tours of the main campus building and its tower are offered frequently; call 512/475-6633 for details.
The stretch of Guadalupe Street running along campus north from Martin Luther King Boulevard to 24th Street is known as " the Drag ." A focus of student activity, and lined with cafs, vintage clothes shops and bookstores, it was the location for much of Richard Linklater's 1991 movie, Slacker .
The LBJ Library and Museum (daily 9am5pm; free; tel 512-916-5137, www.lbjlib.utexas.edu ), on the northeast edge of campus at 2313 Red River St, traces the career of the brash and egotistical Lyndon Baines Johnson from his origins in the Hill Country to the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House. The curious circumstances surrounding his first senatorial election in 1948 (his primary victory was confirmed only after some "overlooked" votes all written in the same hand were found three days after his opponent had apparently won the Democratic nomination) go unmentioned. John Kennedy is said to have made Johnson his vice president to avoid his establishing a rival power base; but in the aftermath of Kennedy's assassination, Johnson's administration (196369) was able to push through a far more radical program than Kennedy ever attempted. Johnson's nemesis, Vietnam, is presented here as an awful mess left by Kennedy for him to clear up, at the cost of great personal anguish. There's a replica of the Johnson Oval Office in the White House, as well as gifts presented to the president, including a 1910 Model T from Henry Ford.