Oklahoma History Center
Encyclopedia
The Oklahoma History Center is the history museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 of the State of Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

. Located across the street from the Governor's mansion at 2401 N. Laird Avenue in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...

, the museum opened in 2005 and is operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society
Oklahoma Historical Society
The Oklahoma Historical Society is an agency of the government of Oklahoma dedicated to promotion and preservation of Oklahoma's history and its people by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge and artifacts of Oklahoma....

. It preserves the history of Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 from prehistoric Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 tribes to the present day.

Inasmuch Gallery

The Inasmuch Foundation Gallery is located on the south end of the first floor. The gallery explores the breadth of Oklahoma’s artistic achievements as well as the impact of an extremely diverse immigrant population. Visitors will enjoy a broad range of subjects, including our entertainment value as a land of Cowboys and Indians, our pioneering innovations in broadcasting, and the dramatic and unifying impact sports and sporting events have made on our communities.

The sections of the Inasmuch Foundation Gallery include: culture and the arts; cultural diversity; images of Oklahoma; sports; voice; radio and television; vacuum tubes; and Wild West shows. Additionally, this gallery houses rotating exhibits on cultural diversity and the arts.

ONEOK Gallery

The ONEOK Gallery is located on the north end of the first floor. Representing all 39 American Indian tribes currently associated with Oklahoma, the ONEOK Gallery offers visitors the opportunity to explore the traditional historic past of native peoples of Oklahoma as well as experience contemporary Indian cultures. Using modern-day Indian experience as a bridge between the past and the present, the exhibit offers artifacts, tribal music, photographic images, Indian art, and oral histories from the Indian tribes of Oklahoma.

The ONEOK Gallery topics include: dwellings; Indian lives; languages; living ways; origins; sovereignty; spirituality; and tribes.

Kerr-McGee Gallery

The Kerr-McGee Gallery is located on the south end of the third floor. The gallery offers a rich history of Oklahoma from our oil and gas exploration to our military contributions since the first expeditions by the Spanish in the 16th century. Visitors can enjoy numerous artifacts including items from an 1830’s riverboat recently excavated from the Red River, examples of Oklahoma’s entrepreneurial history, and a 3-D reconstruction of an oil derrick.

The Kerr-McGee Gallery sections include: African American experience; business; military matters; natural resources; the oil and gas industry; people and pathways; and transportation.

Noble Foundation Gallery

The Noble Foundation Gallery is located on the north end of the third floor. Land runs and lotteries have played an enormous role in our development and settlement as a state. Through artifacts, images, and first-hand accounts of participants, visitors can relive the lives of those brave souls who settled our great plains and turned homesteads into farms and cities. It was their survival of and adaptation to the extremes of weather, economics, and politics that enabled them to create this magnificent state.

The Noble Foundation Gallery sections include: education; farming and ranching; fashions; government and politics; kitchens; the Dust Bowl; land runs; law and order; urban frontiers; and weather.

Special Exhibits

Rock & Roll Exhibit - The Oklahoma History Center hosts "Another Hot Oklahoma Night: A Rock & Roll Exhibit", a title that comes from the lyrics of a song by Oklahoma-born musician Michael Been
Michael Been
Michael Been was an American rock musician who achieved critical attention and rotation play on MTV in the 1980s with his band The Call. He later released an album of his solo work and toured with his son's band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. His song "Let the Day Begin" was the official campaign...

. This exhibit explores the rock and roll artists, radio stations, personalities, venues, and fans that have called Oklahoma home. Beyond the facts of each story, the exhibit shows how growing up in Oklahoma affected the music. These are displayed in an innovative style to encourage visitor participation and to ensure that the visitor will take away a new perspective on the history of rock and roll in Oklahoma. The exhibit is located in the E. L. & Thelma Gaylord Gallery on the extreme north end of the first floor. Additional exhibit components are located in the Inasmuch Foundation, Noble Foundation, and Kerr-McGee Galleries.

Tierra De Mi Familia - On November 22, 2008, the Oklahoma History Center opened a museum exhibit sharing the Latino experience in Oklahoma. The interactive exhibit uses interviews, artifacts, documents, photographs, film, and music to explore both the impact of Latinos on the state of Oklahoma and the impact of the state of Oklahoma on the lives of Latinos. The exhibit integrates two story lines; the historical immigration of Latinos to Oklahoma, from territorial days to present, and the cultural folkways that Oklahoma’s Latino people have brought with them from Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America.

Oklahoma is home to cultures from all over the world, a unique blend of people that call Oklahoma their home. This exhibit provides a place to tell these immigration stories, a place to share and begin to understand and learn about the diversity of the state of Oklahoma. It is located in the Inasmuch Foundation Gallery on the south end of the first floor.

Oklahoma's Apollo 11 Moon Rock and Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rock- Rose Niang-Casey, a graduate student at the University of Phoenix, and a participant in the “Moon Rock Project”, was assigned the task of hunting down the Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 Apollo 11 Moon rock
Moon rock
Moon rock describes rock that formed on the Earth's moon. The term is also loosely applied to other lunar materials collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon.The rocks collected from the Moon are measured by radiometric dating techniques...

and Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rock; two moon rocks the Nixon Administration gifted to the people of Oklahoma. In both cases she discerned these moon rocks were properly on display at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She advised this is an exception to the rule, as most of these unique gifts that were given to the states and nations of the world have been poorly handled over the years.

External links


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