-
Tulsa Historical Society Museum
The Tulsa Historical Society
Museum is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the only museum in the
city that highlights the city's excellent collection of artifacts
that focus on collecting, preserving and presenting the city
history. The museum is located in a 28,000 square foot building and
grounds, which had been the site of a historic home in the Woodward
Park area. As the society collects and preserves the artifacts and
relics of the history of Tulsa, it is also saving the memories and
experiences of the community, showing them in displays and exhibits,
as well as onsite and offsite educational chances. The society
contains seven current exhibits, the magnificent Vintage Garden with
numerous architectural relics, the Tribune Research Library and the
splendid bronze sculptures that tell the state's five
internationally famous Native American ballerinas. The historical
society was started in 1963, containing almost 5000 photographs,
historical costumes, documents, books, maps, architectural remains,
graphics and fine and decorative arts. The society had its
headquarters in the Thomas Gilcrease house from 1985 to 1998, and
then in 1997, funding was acquired through the Tulsa Tribune
Foundation that helped the society buy the historic Samuel Travis
mansion that was located south of the Tulsa Garden Center; and it
has been enlarged to become the society's new home. The society is
now presenting relics from their collection in the museum and can be
researched by appointment. They manage the information that is
gathered from the community, exhibits the collection materials and
sponsor educational programs, as well as lectures for civic groups
and schools, and the Tulsa Hall of Fame program that is done every
fall. Today, the society has items that come from the 19th century
all the way to the present, and includes 15,000 photographs,
furniture, historical films and videos, military medals,
manuscripts, 1000 books, maps, periodicals, fine and decorative
arts, vertical files that cover about 6000 objects, architectural
elements and clothing; plus many other wonderful treasures that will
surprise and delight you. Besides the many photographs in the
museum, the Beryl Ford Collection contains another 24,000
photographs which was bought in 2004, since Beryl Ford had been
collecting photographs, negatives and other relics for the majority
of his life. He passed away in 2009, at the age of 83. Other
materials in this exciting collection of the city of Tulsa, includes
oral histories, videos, and much more. The city was originally
settled by the Lockapoka Creek Indians between 1828 and 1836, who
had been driven out of Alabama, beginning a new life under a huge
oak tree in Tulsa, at the corner of Cheyenne and 18th Street. Just
like the rest of the nation, the Indian territories were also
divided during the Civil War, with the first battle being fought in
Indian territory at the Battle of Round Mountain in November 1861,
between the Confederate allied tribes and Union Creeks led Opothle
Yahola somewhere around the town of Keystone, just west of Tulsa. In
December of that year, the Battle of Caving Banks was fought, with
Yahola leading the union Indians, with the Lockapokas, to find
refuge in Kansas. In 1848, Lewis Perryman, an important Creek
rancher, started a cattle ranch and trading post by the Lockapoka
settlement, but was then killed in the Civil War in Kansas, but his
son, George, would go back to the ranch and construct a big white
house. In 1878, a star route mail station was started at the
Perryman Store, and the area that was served by the store and
station was soon being referred to as Tulsa. In 1882, the Frisco
Railroad would extend one of their lines to the Arkansas River
inside the Creek nation, which started bringing more whites to the
region and Indian land. When the railroad was finished, in 1882, H.
C. Hall, one of the contractors working for the railroad, and his
brother, J. M. Hall, opened a railroad company store by the tracks,
and since they were the first white settlers, they were credited
with the beginning of Tulsa. In 1883, the Arkansas River had a
bridge constructed, so that now the city was open by many ways of
traveling, and it soon was getting better known as the cow town,
with herds of cattle coming here to ship them by the railroad to a
hungry north, and the city's streets today are aligned just right to
handle the tracks. In 1901, oil was discovered in Red Fork,
and the oil boom began with fervor, forever changing the landscape
of the state and city. When a strike occurred at Glen Pool in 1905,
oil prices dropped and the state and Indian territories became the
center of oil exploration and speculation, and by 1909, the city
directory had 126 oil companies listed with offices in Tulsa. From
then on, the cycles of the oil industry would directly affect the
economy of the city and state.
|
