Press Release
September 19, 2024
Tony Thornton
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Office: 405-271-8955
Tony-Thornton@omrf.org
www.omrf.org
Jessica Brogdon
Oklahoma Historical Society
Office: 405-522-0780
jessica.brogdon@history.ok.gov
www.okhistory.org
OMRF Donates Archives to Oklahoma Historical Society
To cap a celebratory 77th year in which the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation paid a visit to all 77 counties in the state, OMRF has donated its archives to the Oklahoma Historical Society.
“At OMRF, we have always thought of ourselves as belonging to the entire state,” said OMRF President Andrew Weyrich, Ph.D. “Now, every Oklahoman will be able to access and learn about their medical research foundation.”
OMRF’s archives consist of a trove of historical documents, photographs and other artifacts that date to OMRF’s founding in 1946. The collection had grown over the decades, and the foundation decided it would be better entrusted to professional archivists at OHS who could organize and catalogue the collection.
When the project is completed, the collection will be available to the public, both in person and through The Gateway to Oklahoma History (www.gateway.okhistory.org), a searchable digital portal.
“OMRF’s history intertwines deeply with the history of Oklahoma,” said OHS Executive Director Trait Thompson. “By making these archives accessible, we’re proud to help tell this uniquely Oklahoma story.”
For the next year, historical artifacts and documents from OMRF’s archives are also on display at the Research Center inside the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City, which serves as OHS headquarters.
The exhibit features photos from OMRF’s history; documents detailing the grassroots effort to create the foundation; the Western Union telegram to Sir Alexander Fleming, the famed British scientist and discoverer of penicillin who dedicated OMRF’s first building in 1949; an interactive display that lets people experience what it is like to live with macular degeneration, a condition that OMRF studies; and many other items.
“This collection will fill a considerable gap,” said Mallory Covington, who oversees archival collections for the Historical Society. “Our goal is to include all aspects of Oklahoma history, but until now we had very little representing medical research.”
A grant from the Puterbaugh Foundation made the entire project possible.
The Puterbaugh Foundation’s president, retired Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven Taylor, describes the project as “a perfect fit” for the McAlester-based philanthropy, which was created by coal magnate J.G. Puterbaugh, OMRF’s second president. “Mr. Puterbaugh would approve of a gift that preserves the archives and the history of a place he dearly loved,” Taylor said.
For Weyrich, the partnership with OHS represents a way to ensure OMRF’s history lives on. “We’re proud of our past, and we want to preserve it,” he said. “But we also want to share it, and with the help of OHS, we will.”
###
