Museum Leadership: 1957–1978
Dr. Newcomb served as curator of anthropology for the Texas Memorial Museum from 1955–1957. Unlike his predecessors, Newcomb was young when he took over as director of the museum in 1957.
Dr. Newcomb considered museums unique and educational institutions. During Dr. Newcomb's directorship the museum's study collections were substantially expanded and each item was professionally catalogued.
The Texas Memorial Museum was also constantly in the process of being converted into the campus museum that he had envisioned. He wanted the Texas Memorial Museum "to tie together fields of knowledge formally separated in the classroom but inseparably linked in nature."