Collection includes creative works, correspondence, printed material, and photographs which document the professional, academic, and personal activities of astronomer David S. Evans. Many of the records document Evans's long association with the McDonald Observatory and his considerable historical and archival interest Evans took in the Observatory, including correspondence, photographs, notes, legal-style documents, minutes, memos, and reports. Two of Evans's books concerning the McDonald Observatory (Big and Bright and Harlan's Globetrotters) are also documented within the collection. The majority of the records are related to a 1973 eclipse expedition to Mauritania (1960-1976 and undated), while a smaller amount documents the early history of the Observatory (1933-2000). The collection also includes records covering other aspects of Evans's professional career, especially material from his role as a professor at the University of Texas; some aspects of Evans's personal life; photographs documenting the construction and operation of the McDonald Observatory, as well as the Mauritania expedition, as well as prints of astronomical events, NASA astronauts, field expeditions, other telescopes and observatories, astronomers, equipment, and charts.