Oklahoma Historical Society Awards and Honors

Muriel H. Wright Award

Outstanding Article Published in The Chronicles of Oklahoma

The Muriel H. Wright Award honors the author of the outstanding article published in the preceding volume of the Oklahoma Historical Society’s scholarly journal, The Chronicles of Oklahoma. All articles published in The Chronicles are considered for the award. The Chronicles is mailed to members and subscribers quarterly. Each issue contains scholarly articles, book reviews, meeting minutes, and notes and documents.

Issues of The Chronicles of Oklahoma through 2019 are available on The Gateway to Oklahoma History.

YearTitleAuthorIssue
2025“Crossing Cultural Frontiers: Mexicans in the Wild West Shows”Gary MorenoSpring 2025
2024“The Westmoreland Gang and the Outlaws of Keystone”Damon T. CagleWinter 2024–25
2023“The Influence of Oklahomans on the Bakersfield Sound: One of Country Music’s Greatest Eras”Phil NeighborsSpring 2023
2022“Native American Culture and Myths Enshrined in The Daughter of Dawn”Rachel RosenfeldFall 2022
2021“‘Hell's an Icebox’: The Myth of Tommy Atkins and the Oil Field that Transformed Oklahoma”Russell CobbSummer 2021
2020“‘An Appeal to Reason’: Women’s Suffrage in Oklahoma and Indian Territories, 1890–1907”Linda WilsonSummer 2020
2019“Birthday of the Klan: The Tulsa Outrage of 1917”Randy HopkinsWinter 2019–20
2018“Sundown on the Prairie: The Extralegal Campaigns and Efforts from 1889 to 1967 to Exclude African Americans from Norman, Oklahoma”Michael S. GivelFall 2018
2018“Curious Links: Unorthodox Ideas from Antediluvian Speculation to New Thought and Utopian Hopes in Early Oklahoma Politics”Alvin O. TurnerFall 2018
2017“Nationhood Defined and Defended: A Slice of Miami History Revealed Through the Thomas F. Richardville Papers”Brian HosmerWinter 2017–18
2016“‘Cyclone’ Jones: Dr. Herbert L. Jones and the Origins of Tornado Research in Oklahoma”Nani PybusSpring 2016
2015“Turning to the Right: More Oil Patch Songs from Oklahoma”Joe W. SpechtWinter 2015–16
2015“The Twilight of Route 66: Transitioning from Highway to Freeway, 1956–84”Frank NorrisFall 2015
2014“The Dust Bowl: The Blame Game, the Facts, and the Problem that Remains”Alvin O. TurnerSpring 2014
2014“Rodeo in Oklahoma is Women's Business: How Lucille Mulhall's Fame Created Opportunity in Rodeo”Tracey HanshewFall 2014
2013“The Enigma of Mike Monroney”Richard LowittSpring 2013
2012“Murder in Custer County: A Case Study and Legal Analysis of Herd Law versus Free Range in Oklahoma Territory”Ed RolisonFall 2012
2012“‘It Would Break Our Hearts Not to Have Our Kiowas’: War Dancing, Tourism, and the Rise of Powwows in the Early Twentieth Century”Benjamin KrachtFall 2012
2011 “Farm Crisis in Oklahoma” Part 1
“Farm Crisis in Oklahoma” Part 2
Richard LowittFall 2011 and Winter 2011–12
2010“The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall of Edwin (‘Daddy’) DeBarr”David W. LevyFall 2010
2009“Water and Power: Developing the Grand River Dam Authority, Part I, 1935–1944”Richard LowittSummer 2009
2008The Businessman’s Frontier: C. C. Hightower, Commerce, and Old Greer County, 1891–1903”Michael J. HightowerSpring 2008
2007“Sooner State Civil Liberties in Perilous Times, 1940–1941, Part 2: Oklahoma’s Little Dies Committee”Wayne A. and Shirley A. WiegandSpring 2007
2006“‘Practically a Military School’: The University of Oklahoma and World War I”David W. LevySummer 2006
2005“Fort Sill Enters the Missile Age”Richard LowittWinter 2005–06
2004“‘A Model Fruit Ranch’: The Housholder Fruit Farm of Guthrie, Oklahoma”Joe G. BaxFall 2004
2003“‘Unite With Us to Rescue the Kiowas’: The Five Civilized Tribes and Warfare on the Southern Plains”Andrew DensonWinter 2003
2002“The Northern Cheyenne Exodus and the 1878 Battle of Turkey Springs”Stan HoigSpring 2002
2001“‘Almost Hopeless in the Wake of the Storm’: The 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic in Oklahoma”Nigel Anthony SellarsSpring 2001
2000“Love Gifts for the Bishop: James J. Stewart vs. Bishop W. Angie Smith”A. W. Martin Jr.Spring and Summer 2000
1999“Baffles, Bridges, and Bermuda: Oklahoma Indians and the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division”Carolyn G. HannemanWinter 1999–2000
1998“The Repeal of Prohibition: The End of Oklahoma’s Noble Experiment”Vincent T. LyonWinter 1998
1997“Otto Gray and His Oklahoma Cowboys: The Country’s First Commercial Western Band”Carla ChlouberWinter 1997
1996“A Saloon on Every Corner: Whiskey Towns of Oklahoma Territory, 1889–1907”Blake GumprechtSummer 1996
1995“Regionalism at the University of Oklahoma”Richard LowittSummer 1995
1994“Comanche Captives: People Between Two Worlds”Michael L. TateFall 1994
1993‘Now the Wolf Has Come’: The Civilian Civil War in the Indian Territory”Mary Jane WardeSpring 1993
1992 “More Valuable than Oil: The Establishment and Development of Tinker Air Force Base, 1940–1949”James L. Crowder Jr.Fall 1992