"It's in beautiful shape," Barker says of the discovered case. She emailed her photo of it to President Jim Davis, whose interest in UT history is particularly keen, and asked, "Any chance you'd like it for your office? It'd be thrilling to return it to use in Main Building, particularly on the fourth floor?"

His response was an enthusiastic yes, in the right location.

Getting the massive display case back to the fourth floor could be a challenge, since it doesn't fit in the elevator and so would have to be maneuvered up four flights of stairs.

UT Surplus has also recently repatriated a table and set of chairs that were refinished and reupholstered for use in the Littlefield House.

There are many other pieces of original furniture scattered throughout the building and within its 27-floor Tower, and not all of them require searching. Two such pieces are visible the moment one enters the main corridor on the ground floor: two standing-height tables against the walls that hearken to an age when the admissions, registrar's and bursar's offices, long housed there, ran on pen and paper.

So, the next time you're in the Main Building and waiting on a bench, remember: Consider the furniture. That bench or chair you're sitting on could well be nearly a century old.