The Oklahoma History Center exhibit Sun and Silver: Photography Before Statehood reintroduces visitors to well-known professional traveling and studio photographers of the pre-statehood era, and presents lesser-known amateur photographers of the same period. Also included in Sun and Silver is an exploration of the various processes used for developing photographs. Magical images on mirror-like, silver-coated copper surfaces (daguerreotypes), mysterious fragile glass negatives (wet-plate photography), and unique, blue-toned prints (cyanotypes) are just a small sample of what guests will see.

This exhibit is on display in the Cooper and Gladys West Atrium Wing and Gallery during regular museum hours, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Museum admission is $10 for adults, $5 for seniors ages 62 and over, $5 for students and free for children ages five and under. Group rates are available upon request. Oklahoma Historical Society members, active-duty military, veterans, and dependents (with ID) are admitted at no charge.

The exhibit Thrift Style will close at the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center on Wednesday, October 20. The exhibit explores the reuse of feed sacks to make clothing and other household objects and illuminates how the “upcycling” of these bags mutually benefitted twentieth-century consumers and businesses. With forty-one works from patterns to garments, it serves as an example of past ingenuity that can inform today’s efforts towards sustainability.

The exhibition, organized by the Historic Costume and Textile Museum and the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, both at Kansas State University, provides a nostalgic view into American ingenuity, sensibility, and optimism during a particularly challenging time of economic hardship and war—the period of the Great Depression and World War II. The reuse of feed, flour, and sugar sacks was a cost-saving and resource-saving approach employed by homemakers to make new items to meet their families’ needs.

On November 16, the Chisholm Trail Museum (CTM) in Kingfisher opened a special temporary exhibit featuring historical maps from the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS), as well as historical surveying equipment from the museum. Maps and Mapmaking: Historical Maps of Oklahoma was created in partnership with the OHS John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick Research Center at the Oklahoma History Center. It is a traveling exhibit curated by CTM Director Jason Harris and OHS Research Director Chad Williams that will be shared with museums, libraries, and other institutions throughout the state. The exhibit will be on display at CTM through October 9.

The Oklahoma Historical Society, in cooperation with Oklahoma Humanities, is pleased to announce that the Smithsonian Institution Museum on Main Street traveling exhibition Crossroads: Change in Rural America is coming to Fort Gibson Historic Site October 30–December 11, 2021.

Americans come together at the crossroads. They invest in places and build their futures where their paths cross. Small towns became centers of commerce, trade, local politics, and culture. For some, the crossroads affirmed a new life in a new place. For others, the crossroads meant hard work and hard times.

Fashions of the Overholser exhibit features several pieces of clothing belonging to Anna Overholser and Henry Ione Overholser Perry's wardrobe. Guests will be able to get an up-close look at fashions from the first half of the 20th century, which are treasures found in the Oklahoma Historical Society collections. Cocktail dresses, gowns, casual wear, shoes, and handbags will be on display along with period clothing donated to the mansion over the years.

Guests are welcome to tour the home and fashions at their own pace. Museum personnel will be on hand to answer questions. This exhibit will be open until November 13, 2021.