by Jill Holt, Curator of Textiles

Over the first half of this year, we had an exhibit of toys. I have a soft spot in my heart for toys and had a wonderful time putting the exhibit together. So many of today’s toys are made of plastic but there was a time when metal was the preferred material for toys.

One of the metal toys in the exhibit was the “Corner Grocer.” The center panel has lithograph print of the interior of a grocery store and it is flanked with shelves which swing out. The shelves contain miniature canned and boxed goods. There is also a sales counter complete with scales, telephone, and a roll of butcher paper. Wolverine Supply and Manufacturing of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, made this toy beginning in the 1920s.

Another metal toy in the exhibit was the Play Steel Colonial Dollhouse. The lithograph of the interior and exterior was done by the National Can Corporation of New York in the 1940s. The house features a living room and dining/kitchen on the first floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor.

I spent many hours playing with similar toys during my childhood and these two toys brought back many happy memories for me.

by Martha Anderson, Volunteer

Cataloguing artifacts always interests me. Even the most ordinary object can open a door to an unexpected place. Consider the humble car tag. In the museum’s collection of nearly 200 auto license plates dating from 1913 into the 1990s there’s not much to learn beyond the state’s history of legislative actions regarding vehicle registration.

We have two license plates that give a glimpse of a far greater story. They were issued in the early 1980s to ex-POWs, both Oklahoma veterans who served in World War II. The accession files have only the most basic details about either man: service branch, rank, death date, burial place. One mentions time in a Japanese POW camp, but nothing more. That seems to be typical of so many personal war records from that era—just the facts, no detail. The widows of these veterans donated the plates as historical references but nothing of their stories. Unwilling to leave the files bare, I used the facts at hand to unlock the door of public record.

US Army Enlistment Records show that Claude W. Box of Creek County enlisted in Oklahoma City on March 11, 1941. PFC Box is found on a 59th Coastal Artillery Personnel Roster dated March 31, 1942 compiled by the Corregidor Historic Society. The island fortress of Corregidor was surrendered to Japanese forces on May 6, 1942, one month after the fall of Bataan. Well over 10,000 Allied prisoners were captured and scattered across the Philippines and Asia. WWII Prisoners of War Records list S/Sgt. Box among those liberated from Tokyo POW Camp (Shinjuku) Tokyo Bay Area 35-140 three and half years later. Claude Box processed out of the Army October 1, 1945. His widow stated that he died November 1, 1984 and is buried in Mannford, Creek County, Oklahoma.

The second license plate was issued to Elvis A. McCoy, Miami, Oklahoma. The 381st Bombardment Group War Diary lists Cpl. McCoy with a combat crew assigned to the 532nd Bomb Squadron on September 1, 1944. This crew flew B-17 bombing missions over Germany and France from Ridgewell Air Field, County Essex, England. A 532nd Squadron War Diary entry for December 11, 1944 describes that day’s mission over Mannheim, Germany. It reports that subsequent flak (ground-to-air fire) in the target area downed the plane and lists the names of the crew missing in action. T/Sgt McCoy is listed as one of two POWs; six other crewmen and the pilot were killed. McCoy is named among POWs held at Stalag Luft I, Barth, Germany. His last report date with the Army Air Corps was June 1945. His last residence is listed as Miami, Oklahoma and date of death as August 1, 1988.

Box and McCoy not only answered the call, but served above and beyond with sacrifices that can only be guessed at. First person accounts of men and women in similar circumstances paint very grim pictures. It is interesting that these two stories illustrate the two happiest days in WWII history. POW liberation in 1945 coincided with V-E Day on May 8 with Germany’s surrender, and V-J Day on September 2 with Japan’s surrender. That year also saw these men turn 23.

The accession files show that two widows of veterans gave us just a couple of car tags. The details show they gave us so much more.

Violet McCoy Collection, 1988.175

by Chad Williams, Deputy Director of the Research Division

The collections of the Oklahoma Historical Society contain well over seven million photographic images. Over the past year the Research Division has begun a project to reproduce many of these historic Oklahoma images and make them available to be purchased. The initial fifty images chosen include iconic photographs of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, Oklahoma Land Runs, the Oklahoma oil industry, a Buffalo hunt, dust bowl depictions, historic street scenes from

Oklahoma towns, and a number of images of Oklahoma farms, businesses, and territorial dwellings. In addition, individuals with historic ties to Oklahoma are represented.

These include Apache Indian Chief Geronimo, Comanche Indian Chief Quanah Parker, Wiley Post, Future President Theodore Roosevelt, President John F. Kennedy, Native American Jim Thorpe, U. S. Marshal Chris Madsen, Buffalo Bill Cody, Zack Miller (101 Ranch), Will Rogers, and Oklahoma Governor Charles Haskell. My personal favorite is a photograph taken of The U.S.S. Oklahoma and the U.S.S. Arizona at the Pedro Miguel Locks, Panama Canal on February 23, 1921, twenty years before they were both lost at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This image has a wonderful grittiness and of course is special because the Oklahoma and Arizona are the only two battleships which did not return to fight in World War II after being sunk at Pearl Harbor.

The majority of the reproductions have been produced in a 11” X 14” format, although ten of the reproductions vary from that size. Prices range from $2 for a 4” X 6” bird’s-eye view of Oklahoma City’s Bricktown in 1910 all the way to $15 for a 10.5” X 37” panorama image of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention in Guthrie. All 11” X 14” images are $10. Unless the reproductions are picked up at the Oklahoma History Center there will be a $6 shipping and handling fee added. In the future we hope to reproduce more photographs with themes that include Native Americans, African Americans, Dust Bowl, Oil Industry, OKC Fire Department, Weather, Land Openings, Military, Buildings, Law Enforcement, Sports, and Wild West Shows. View the 50 historic photo reproductions available for sale.

The OHS online catalog includes thousands of additional scanned images that are available for purchase. Visit www.okhistory.org/research to find out more.

So long for now from the mother ship of Oklahoma History, the Oklahoma History Center, Home of the Oklahoma Historical Society.

by William Welge, Research Division Director

In 1980, Reverend Hobart Ragland, a Methodist minister donated to the Archives his paper’s. Some time earlier, the OHS had commissioned him to produce a historical survey about the state. Approximately half of the 48 document boxes in his collection is devoted to that project. Here is a small sample of his work to preserve our great history.

In manuscript collection 82.100, Box 1 begins Rev. Ragland’s efforts at documenting historic sites within the 77 counties of Oklahoma.