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.

by William D. Welge, Research Division Director

Fred Barde was considered the dean of Oklahoma Territorial journalist in the first decade of the 20th century. Born in Hannibal, Missouri in 1869, Barde worked with newspapers in Missouri then landed in Kansas City where he joined the staff of the Kansas City Star. In 1896, Barde was assigned to cover the emerging political activities and other social issues in Oklahoma Territory. He operated from Guthrie where he wrote about many topic’s of the day, interviewing prominent persons who were instrumental in shaping what would become a new state in 1907.

Barde died in 1916 at the age of 47. In 1917, the Oklahoma Historical Society requested an appropriation from the state legislature for $5,000.00 to purchase Barde’s papers from his widow.

by William D. Welge, Research Division Director

March is Women’s History Month. In celebrating the many accomplishments of Oklahoman’s and there have been many, I am reminded of a person who is little known in the annuals of our heritage. Louisa Rohrer Fair was a native of Warren, Pennsylvania, though her birth is not mentioned she married Michael Fair in 1860. In the 1880’s she and her family by this time had six daughters and one son when they moved from the east coast to Clay County, Texas. When the opportunity to stake land in the Cheyenne and Arapaho country happened in April, 1892, the Fair’s were successful securing land between Rocky and Sentinel. Louisa in 1901 started keeping a diary where she would write about the weather or family gatherings which were many. Sometimes Louisa would mention Michael’s trips away from home as the family had retained their property in Texas. One can sense how hard life was in what seemed an unforgiving land, but Louisa would mention good times as well. The entries cease in 1903, but the diary has been preserved by the Research Division when Carol J. Vinson of Shreveport Louisiana donated her great-grandmother’s memories written in a care-worn ledger book back in 1989. It’s appropriate that the diary begins in late March, 1901 when she wrote the following, “Thurs. 28, Cold norther this morning…wind blowing, oh when will it get warm.” Something Oklahoman’s can relate to today.

Louisa Rohrer Fair, Rocky, Oklahoma Territory
Ms. Coll. 89.07

This diary along with millions of pages of history can be viewed at the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Division Monday-Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.