In its formative years, the Benson Latin American Collection at The University of Texas at Austin went through many growing pains. Although the collection grew by leaps and bounds between 1920 and 1946, the collection was also beset with political infighting and racial tensions. Due to the Latin American Collection's close ties to the History department, maturation of the collection as an archive and library were slow to develop. As one of the largest Latin American collections in the United States, the Benson's growth in the mid-twentieth century reflected the drive all over the country to build knowledge and research opportunities from Central and South America. The University of Texas's Latin American librarians participated in this community, and much of the first librarians' work was intertwined with the collecting efforts of other historians in the southern and eastern United States