Oklahoma Heritage Preservation Grant Awardees
The following organizations were awarded funds through the Oklahoma Historical Society’s Oklahoma Heritage Preservation Grant Program. Learn more about the program.
2023/2024 Grantees
The OHS will award over $520,000 in grant funds to 37 grantees, with projects ranging from collections care and strategic planning to exhibit development and educational programming.
Black Liberated Arts Center, Inc.
Oklahoma City | $15,000 | Collections Archive and Preservation Project
Awarded funds to inventory, organize, catalog, and store all items and documents within its possession. This initiative is crucial for ensuring proper preservation for historical purposes, facilitating research, and supporting in-house and touring exhibits.
Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Bristow | $8,605 | Expansion of Oral History Project
Awarded funds to record, transcribe, and integrate 30 new oral histories into its content management system. These resources will be made accessible to the public through both an on-site kiosk and the organization’s website, enriching historical knowledge and community engagement.
Chelsea Area Historical Society
Chelsea | $4,500 | Strategic Plan
Awarded funds for the creation of a strategic plan utilizing a facilitator. This long-range planning will help to facilitate growth opportunities and prioritize the commitment of resources.
Claremore Museum of History
Claremore | $20,000 | Pocahontas Club History Weavers Exhibit
Awarded funds to commemorate the Indian Women’s Pocahontas Club’s 125th anniversary with a new exhibit at the Claremore Museum of History. This grant will fund the creation of an exhibit showcasing the remarkable story of these women through artifacts, history, photographs, and audio/visual files, inspiring women everywhere with their strength and resilience.
Delaware Nation
Anadarko | $20,000 | Display Cases for Delaware Nation New Tribal Museum
Awarded funds for the acquisition of new display cases for the newly opened tribal museum in Anadarko, enhancing the exhibit experience for visitors.
Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
Wyandotte | $20,000 | Exploring Intergenerational Family Connections
Awarded funds to support the creation of a family booklet that explores tribal families through the work of a tribal genealogist, offering a deeper understanding of tribal heritage and lineage.
Edmond History Museum
Edmond | $20,000 | Digitizing the Edmond Sun Newspaper
Awarded funds to facilitate the digitization of the Edmond Sun newspaper archives from 1964 to June 2000, making them accessible on The Gateway to Oklahoma History.
El Reno Carnegie Library
El Reno | $15,155 | Collections Digitization Project
Awarded funds for the digitization of items focusing on urban development, local government, and local events during territorial and early statehood. Items will be digitized and placed on The Gateway to Oklahoma History.
Elk City Carnegie Library
Elk City | $20,000 | Digitization of Elk City Newspapers
Awarded funds to digitize 150 rolls of Elk City News microfilm from 1964 to June 1992, preserving local history and enabling public access via The Gateway to Oklahoma History.
Field Historical Printing Museum, Inc.
Hominy | $4,499 | Acquisition of Archival Materials to Protect Documents, Photographs, and Newspapers
Awarded funds to help fund the purchase of various archival materials to permit the proper storage and display of items currently displayed and those stored for future display as exhibits are rotated and refreshed.
Freedom Center of Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City | $20,000 | Freedom Center Community Archive, Year 3
Awarded funds to support identifying and researching critical archive items for storytelling within the Clara Luper Civil Rights Center.
Friends of Fort Gibson Foundation
Fort Gibson | $6,500 | Fort Gibson 200th Anniversary Military Programming
Awarded funds to support the Fort Gibson Historic Site, in collaboration with the Friends of Fort Gibson Foundation, in conducting three educational programs showcasing highlights in the site’s history. The programs will include a living history garrison depicting 19th-century life, expeditions launched from the fort, and the role of Native US military members during the Civil War. These programs aim to educate visitors about the site’s rich history and will become part of its regular annual programming.
Friends of the Pawnee Bill Ranch Association
Pawnee | $6,750 | Pawnee Bill Blacksmith Shop
Awarded funds to renovate and enhance the blacksmith shop at the Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum. The project aims to update interpretive signage, improve lighting, and implement key identification for historic items. These enhancements will contribute to maintaining the museum’s high-quality exhibitions and improving the storage and display of items.
Historical Society of the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma
Oklahoma City | $20,000 | Civics Education Program: Phase 1 — Research, Planning, and Design
Awarded funds to support phase one of the Civics Education Program, enhancing understanding of the Rule of Law and delivering impactful civics education. The project will involve research into technology, curriculum development, and engagement strategies, leading to the implementation of a revitalized program with measurable success in the quality and quantity of education initiatives.
Jim Thorpe Memorial Foundation
Yale | $4,500 | Development of a Multi-Year Strategic Plan
Awarded funds to assist the foundation in addressing financial, administrative, and leadership strengths and weaknesses. Developing a strategic plan will enable advances in a revamped and strengthened mission.
Keystone Crossroads Historical Society
Mannford | $3,000 | Collection Digitization
Awarded funds to enable the museum to expand its online presence by digitizing and sharing an additional 330 photos, maps, interviews, and documents from its collection on The Gateway to Oklahoma History. These files will be processed and made available for broader accessibility and preservation.
Lawton Public Library
Lawton | $20,000 | Microfilm Digitization
Awarded funds to facilitate the digitization and hosting of 150 rolls of microfilm on The Gateway to Oklahoma History. This collection will include back issues of the Lawton Constitution from 1983 to 1985 and the Lawton Morning Press from 1964 to 1973, providing valuable historical resources to researchers and the public.
M.W. Grand Lodge AF&AM of the State of Oklahoma (Museum and Library), Inc.
Guthrie | $7,200 | Library Cataloging Phase 1
Awarded funds to facilitate the cataloging of 7,000 volumes in the library, prioritizing the main library and proceedings room in the initial phase. This effort aims to partially automate the process and ensure essential book information is accurately recorded in the database.
McLoud Historical Society
McLoud | $10,000 | Conservation of the Lisle Drug Soda Fountain Wall Unit and Art Panels
Awarded funds to support the conservation and restoration of a historic soda fountain wall unit originally belonging to Lisle Drug Store in McLoud. Once restored, the wall unit will serve as the centerpiece of a tribute to McLoud’s vital business district, reflecting its growth and significance over the years.
Midwest City High School Museum, Inc.
Midwest City | $20,000 | Touchscreen Kiosks and Banners
Awarded funds to acquire two double-sided interactive touchscreen kiosks and four informational banners for the Midwest City History Center, enhancing visitor engagement and promoting the Center’s mission.
Oklahoma Black Living Legacy
Oklahoma City | $7,100 | Oklahoma Black Living Legacy Walking Tour
Awarded funds to create and implement the Oklahoma Black Living Legacy Walking Tour, offering an interactive exploration of Oklahoma City’s Black history through digital platforms and printed materials.
Oklahoma Conservation Historical Society
Statewide | $16,650 | Development of Brand, Content, and Digital Strategy
Awarded funds to enable the organization to expand its digital presence, enhancing its branding, website, and social media to reach new audiences and fulfill its mission of sharing Oklahoma’s conservation history.
Oklahoma Military Heritage Foundation
Edmond | $15,000 | Interviews of Hall of Fame Honorees
Awarded funds to support its initiative to record interviews with living military honorees for preservation on its website and at the Oklahoma History Center. This project aims to document the stories of 31 living honorees, enriching the foundation’s interactive database and contributing to a special program for its 25th anniversary in 2024. Funding will cover videographer fees, equipment rental, and potential travel expenses to ensure the success of this project.
Old Greer County Museum & Hall of Fame, Inc
Mangum | $17,757 | Photographic Collection Digitization
Awarded funds to support the digitization and rehousing of 3,900 negatives from the Fike Studio collection. Additionally, it will facilitate the upload of 600 images from the collection to The Gateway to Oklahoma History.
Plains Indians & Pioneers Historical Foundation
Woodward | $11,193 | McDonald Collection Digitization
Awarded funds to support digitizing and moving online a collection of photographic negatives, slides, and prints donated by McDonald Studios. This collection, spanning four counties in Oklahoma, southern Kansas, and the Texas Panhandle, offers valuable insights into life in northwest Oklahoma. Previous grants enabled the digitization of 13,000 images, which have proven popular with researchers and individuals.
Prairie House Preservation Society
Norman | $20,000 | Prairie House Exterior Cladding Survey
Awarded funds to support them in surveying the Prairie House exterior cladding using Building Information Modeling 3D software. This project aims to document the original form and character of Herb Greene’s design.
Rogers County Historical Society, Inc.
Claremore | $20,000 | Preserving and Enhancing Ed Galloway’s Fiddle House
Awarded funds to support preserving and refurbishing the Fiddle House at the Ed Galloway Totem Pole Park. This includes documenting existing artwork, conducting conservation work, and redesigning the interior.
Seminole Nation Museum
Wewoka | $20,000 | Development of Permanent Collections Exhibition
Awarded funds to support the creation of a Permanent Collections Gallery and education space within the Seminole Nation Museum. This includes environmental controls, technology upgrades, and construction modifications to facilitate artifact exhibition and educational programming.
The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma
Wewoka| $4,999 | Seminole Nation Elder Audio Recordings
Awarded funds to support the preservation of the Mvskoke language by facilitating the recording of stories, songs, family history, tribal history, speeches, and other cultural elements by tribal elders.
Southern Nazarene University
Bethany | $7,179 | Organization and Cataloging Project
Awarded funds to support the reorganization, housing, and limited cataloging of 200 collection boxes, enhancing access and preservation efforts. Additionally, funds will enable the purchase of a scanner to digitize newspaper clippings, preserving their content and reducing acid migration.
Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) Foundation, Inc.
Weatherford | $19,730 | Digitization of Special Collections, Phase Two
Awarded funds to digitize analog assets from the SWOSU Athletics collections, specifically 92 seven-inch film reels. The content will be added to the SWOSU Digital Commons upon digitization, ensuring broad accessibility. Additionally, funds will support labeling, organization, and archival measures for the film reels, enhancing their preservation and usability.
Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar
Stillwater | $19,992 | Renovation of Museum Exhibits
Awarded funds to revitalize exhibits and enhance visitor experience as part of the museum’s 50th anniversary celebration. These funds will be used for materials, labor, and contracting services necessary for the renovation, including creating thematic wall panels, exhibit bays, and interactive touchscreens. Additionally, grant funds will contribute to digitizing resources, allowing broader access to the museum’s on-site and online collections.
The City of Vernon Chamber of Commerce
Vernon | $1,285| Development of Website
Awarded funds to support the development of cityofvernon-ok.org, showcasing the history and future of Vernon, Oklahoma. This includes website design, hosting, digitizing historical photos and documents, and enabling online donations with donor recognition.
The Edwards Store, Inc.
Red Oak | $20,000 | Restoration: Foundations - Part A - East/West Elevations
Awarded funds to support the restoration of the historic Edwards Store/Edwards-Hardaway Homestead and Cemetery, focusing on the foundational restoration of the log cabin’s east and west elevations. This includes critical repairs such as constructing subgrade concrete footings, relaying stone columns, replacing rotten logs, and repairing the firebox.
The Friends of the Coleman
Miami | $18,000 | Sharing the Past with Future Generations
Awarded funds to preserve, protect, and digitize several thousand existing items related to The Coleman Theatre, including playbills, photographs, newspaper articles, letters, information files, and artifacts. Future plans include placing the fully digitized collection online.
Tulsa Foundation for Architecture
Tulsa | $20,000 | Digitization of Collections: Phase 3
Awarded funds to provide greater public access to collections via digitized scans of the originals and provide a revenue stream for sustainability. This project aims to digitize at least 10,000 additional works from collections, beginning with those most frequently requested.
Waynoka Historical Society
Waynoka | $19,800 | Collections Organization, Discovery, and Digitization
Awarded funds to support the organization’s efforts to open, organize, and digitize its collections. This includes hiring a qualified technician for digitization, categorizing items, and initiating scanning processes.
2022/2023 Grantees
The OHS awarded over $575,000 in grant funds in the 2022/2023 grant cycle to 39 organizations.
Chisholm Trail Museum, Inc.
Kingfisher | $20,000 | Chisholm Trail Village Assessment and Improvements
Awarded funds to inventory, assess, and evaluate the educational props and collections housed in the museum’s village bank, church, and school. This will expand interpretation in each building by securing additional props and resources for visitor-led exploration and staff-facilitated engagement. Additionally, the museum will create and install a series of interpretive exhibit panels focusing on the topics associated with each building.
Claremore Museum of History
Claremore | $20,000 | Surrey with the Fringe on Top Exhibit and Restoration
Awarded funds to help with the proper conservation of one of the “surreys with the fringe on top” used in the movie Oklahoma! The project will also fund an interactive exhibit as part of the surrey display,
Connors State College Development Foundation
Warner | $20,000 | Building Futures; Remembering the Past
Awarded funds to address goals for properly preserving, organizing, and documenting artifacts for the Ogdon Family Connors State College Museum as well as digitally collecting, presenting, and archiving the verbal history of the college’s alums, students, and faculty.
Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
Wyandotte | $20,000 | Exploring Intergenerational Family Connections
Awarded funds to help with genealogical research to identify tribal family relations. Utilizing a tribal genealogist for research efforts, the George J. Captain Library staff will work with families to get photographs and documents associated with individuals and families to create collections and a family history booklet. The information will also be used to create an exhibit that will be on display demonstrating the tribal family history and intergenerational family connections at the George J. Captain Library.
Edmond Historical Society and Museum
Edmond | $13,500 | Edmond Through the Decades: Interactive Touchscreen
Awarded funds to create an exhibit that will provide a compact way to tell Edmond’s history over time, not just its beginning and middle. Funds will aid in purchasing an interactive touchscreen where guests can choose a decade of interest, read a summary of the era, and view photos and artifacts.
El Reno Carnegie Library
El Reno | $19,992 | 2023 Collections Digitization Project
Awarded funds to digitize items from the library’s collection focusing on urban development, local government, and local events during territorial and early statehood days. Once digitized, the items will be publicly accessible and searchable online via The Gateway to Oklahoma History.
Field Historical Printing Museum, Inc.
Hominy | $18,000 | Dynamic Floating Islands of History
Awarded funds for new exhibit cases that will allow for greater mobility and flexibility of subject orientation and presentations over time and increase appeal and freshness.
Freedom Center of Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City | $20,000 | Freedom Center Community Archive, Year 2
Awarded funds to build upon work completed from the previous grant cycle and ensure the Community Archive materials are described to a deeper degree to support future digitization efforts. This effort will be supplemented by capturing and preserving essential oral histories with board members, community members, and original sit-inners.
Friends of Cobb School, Inc.
Vinita | $5,000 | Development of a Strategic Plan
Awarded funds to create a strategic plan utilizing a facilitator. This long-range planning will help to facilitate the organization’s goal of properly relocating the schoolhouse and to open an interactive, educational museum at Cobb School.
Friends of Fort Gibson Foundation
Fort Gibson | $20,000 | First Kansas Colored Infantry and the Women Who Supported Them
Awarded funds to purchase supplies necessary to create a living history program that will put names and real-life stories to individuals involved with the First Kansas Colored Infantry. This will include men such as Andy Murrell, an enslaved person to Minerva and George Murrell at nearby Hunter’s Home plantation, who became a scout for the US military in Indian Territory, and Harriet Markham, a laundress married to a soldier in the First Kansas. Laundresses were not limited to cleaning and mending the clothes of the soldiers. They were also employed as nurses and helped the cooks in the mess halls while contributing to the family economy and allowing for a two-person income
Guthrie Tomorrow/State Capital Publishing Museum
Guthrie | $8,000 | Collection Digitization
Awarded funds to inventory and rehouse approximately 600 unique printed forms from state offices, county clerks, court clerks, and attorneys all over Oklahoma. The project will also inventory and rehouse over 200 banker-style boxes, which contain shipping reports, orders for printing supplies, orders for printed materials, and possibly even payroll records, mostly from the days of the Cooperative Publishing Company, which operated in the building from 1911 until the late 1960s.
Hooker Historical Society
Hooker | $20,000 | Alice Hacker Negative Archive
Awarded funds to catalog and digitize a collection of photographs taken in and around Hooker, Oklahoma, by professional photographer Alice Hacker. The project will also include placing 50 images on the online portal The Gateway to Oklahoma History. Images will be utilized in the upcoming fifth volume of the Hooker History Book, and will also form a display for the organization’s annual meeting with outreach to family members with relatives in the collection.
Landmark For All Generations, Inc.
Okmulgee | $20,000 | Collections Care and Digitization
Awarded funds to store, preserve, categorize, and digitize its vast collection of photographs, articles, and equipment related to the Okmulgee Black Hospital, historically known as Okmulgee Colored Hospital. The hospital operated as a segregated facility for the area’s Black community from 1924 until 1956 and could house up to 25 patients.
Lawton Public Library
Lawton | $20,000 | Interactive Historical Signs
Awarded funds to develop markers that allow visitors to listen to a narrated story about that location’s historical significance. The markers will be located in various community areas and accessible by QR code and a dial-in phone number.
Midwest City High School Museum, Inc.
Midwest City | $9,965 | Wall-Mounted Display Systems and Digitization of Collections
Awarded funds for two display cases to showcase documents and images of 80 years of graduating classes in preparation for the celebration of the school’s 80th anniversary in 2024.
MVA Military History Center
Broken Arrow | $5,000 | Storage of Artifacts Awaiting Rotation for Exhibit
Awarded funds for upgraded storage solutions for over 500 items held in collections.
Muscogee Creek Indian Freedmen Band
Moore | $12,157 | The Unsung Heroes of the Civil War: Freedmen of Indian Territory Exhibit
Awarded funds to create a traveling exhibit with 15 displays detailing soldiers’ military careers during the Civil War in Indian Territory and their Freedmen ancestry.
Noble County Genealogy Society
Perry | $15,635 | Newspaper Microfilm Digitization
Awarded funds to digitize and place on The Gateway to Oklahoma History 172 rolls of local newspaper microfilm, including 153 rolls from the Perry Journal dated 1964 through 2011, and 19 rolls from the Garber-Billings News dated 1964 to 2022, thanks to copyright permissions from the publishers.
Oklahoma Black Living Legacy
Oklahoma City | $4,000 | Oklahoma Black Living Legacy Three-Year Strategic Plan
Awarded funds to help develop a strategic plan to help the organization create goals and objectives.
Oklahoma Conservation Historical Society, Inc.
Edmond | $4,924 | Helping People, Help the Land: Traveling Photographs of Oklahoma Conservation History
Awarded funds to will identify 20–25 of the most important historic photographs from the organization’s collection. The photographs will be assembled as a traveling exhibit available to local and regional museums, conservation districts, events, and at the State Capitol for Conservation Day. The photographic images and accompanying narrative information will depict the range of conservation history from the 1920s to the present day, the geographic diversity of the state, and the different aspects of conservation work
Old Greer County Museum & Hall of Fame, Inc.
Mangum | $15,696 | Photographic Preservation and Digitization
Awarded funds for scanning, rehousing, and placing 4,000 images from the Fike Studio Collection online.
Pawhuska Public Library
Pawhuska | $7,200 | Digitization of Pawhuska Journal-Capital
Awarded funds for digitizing the Pawhuska Journal-Capital newspaper from 1964 through July 1, 2004, to be placed online and made fully searchable via The Gateway to Oklahoma History.
Plains Indians & Pioneers Historical Foundation
Woodward | $10,980 | McDonald Collection Digitization
Awarded funds to catalog, digitize, and place online a vast collection of photographic negatives, slides, and prints donated by the McDonald Studios, which operated throughout most of the 20th century in Woodward, Oklahoma. The studio served an area that covered four counties in Oklahoma, plus southern Kansas and the Texas Panhandle. When the business closed in the early 1990s, approximately 45,000 images were donated. This is phase four of the project and will digitize 4,500 images.
Pottawatomie County Historical Society
Shawnee | $15,984 | Build Additional Display Cases to Increase Exhibit Capacity
Awarded funds to allow for the purchase of six additional display cases for artifacts currently in storage. The Pottawatomie County Historical Society and Museum recently moved into a new 12,576 square-foot facility and are in the process of building displays to house their collections
Prairie House Preservation Society
Norman | $5,000 | Prairie House Preservation Society Five-Year Comprehensive Strategic Plan
Awarded funds to help create a five-year strategic plan that will establish organizational goals and provide a framework for the priorities of restoring the building, launching sustainable programs, and the ongoing preservation efforts necessary to realize the organization’s mission. Funds will be used to hire a strategic planning professional to work alongside the executive director and board president to write a five-year plan
Preservation Oklahoma, Inc.
Oklahoma City | $9,900 | Teaching/Heritage Garden at the Henry and Anna Overholser Mansion
Awarded funds to add a vegetable garden to the grounds of the Henry and Anna Overholser mansion. The home historically kept a kitchen garden on the property, as did many early homes in the city, regardless of the home’s size or the family’s wealth. By creating the teaching/heritage garden, we hope to educate our guests on the types of vegetables grown over 100 years ago and how they compare to those grown today. We will invite the public to work with us in the garden on weekends and feature programming to interpret the garden.
Rogers County Historical Society, Inc.
Claremore | $20,000 | The Totem as Monument and Archive
Awarded funds for a workshop series in partnership with Social Practice City University of New York. The workshops and lectures will address the Totem Pole Park thematically, giving historical and contemporary context to the grassroots art environment that Ed Galloway created from the 1930s to the 1950s. Participants will have the opportunity to learn restoration techniques through hands-on work and propose complementary projects that contribute to the park’s long-term goals.
Seminole Nation Museum
Wewoka | $18,567 | Collections Acquisition
Awarded funds to acquire artifacts of material culture for exhibition and research/study so that tribal members and others may better understand the Seminole people. Funds from this grant will be used to commission and display a full set of men’s period Seminole regalia (clothing) from the mid-19th century and purchase a beaded bandolier bag created by the late Damian Jay McGirt (Seminole/Muscogee). Together, these items will enhance the museum’s Everlasting Fire exhibit by exploring the traditional nature of the Seminole people through artifacts representing the Seminole’s “Golden Age.”
Southeastern Oklahoma State University Library Special Collections
Durant | $15,300 | Two Leaders in Higher Education: Two Museum Exhibits
Awarded funds to create two stand-alone exhibits on the SEOSU campus dedicated to two leaders of Oklahoma higher education and their impact on the history of Southeastern: John Massey, a businessman and banker from Durant; and Glen D. Johnson, former speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, president of SEOSU in Durant, and chancellor for higher education in the state of Oklahoma.
Southern Nazarene University
Bethany | $13,984 | Updating Exhibit Space for Interactivity and Accessibility
Awarded funds to update exhibit space in the Paul Gray Reading Room of the archives for greater patron accessibility and interactivity. The updates will provide patrons with integrated audio-visual exhibit components, interactive and flexible pathways through exhibit materials, engagement with related archives material, and accessible design strategies for accessing the exhibit area and materials.
Southern Prairie Library System
Altus | $20,000 | Altus Times/Altus Times-Democrat Newspaper Digitization Project
Awarded funds to digitize 280 microfilm rolls of the Altus Times/Times-Democrat newspaper from December 1964 to December 2021. Thanks to copyright permission from the publisher, the digitized items will be fully searchable and added to the Oklahoma Digital Newspaper Program on The Gateway to Oklahoma History.
Southwestern Oklahoma State University Foundation, Inc.
Weatherford | $19,557 | Digitization of Special Collections
Awarded funds to digitize analog assets from the General Thomas P. Stafford Archives that cannot currently be digitized in-house. Selected items will be from the following collections: The Stafford Collection, university history, performances of the music department, and the athletics collections.
Stephens County Historical Society
Duncan | $11,900 | Telling the Story of the People of Stephens County through Exhibits
Awarded funds to provide more interpretation of the artifacts on display at the museum through exhibit/object labels. The museum currently relies on a guided tour to provide context to the objects on display, which is not always available. Grant funds will help purchase items needed to complete the project, such as a printer, foam board, adhesive, and reader rails.
Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar
Stillwater | $19,989 | Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar 50th Anniversary
Awarded funds for the organization, rehousing, and select digitization of the institutional records of the Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar. The collection contains newsletters, brochures, meeting minutes, and files from past exhibits and programs. The project will coincide with the organization’s 50th anniversary, aid in long-range planning and commemorative programming, and preserve the organization's institutional records and history.
Stroud Public Library
Stroud | $2,970 | Archiving Photographs
Awarded funds for archiving photographs, which are mostly oversized or on other media. The library has eight oversized photographs, which sustained water damage and now have mold. The grant will help fund consultation with a conservator, supplies needed to remove mold from images safely, and custom enclosures to place the images afterward.
The Edwards Store, Inc.
Red Oak | $16,000 | Archaeological Field Work/Final Preliminary Steps
Awarded funds for archaeological fieldwork at the Edwards Store. Historians and historical architects will contribute to fieldwork documentation and analysis. Work will include precision mapping, near-surface geophysical surveying, cemetery documentation, initial archaeological testing, oral history interviewing, and finds reporting.
The Friends of the Coleman Foundation
Miami | $18,000 | Preserving the Past for Future Generations
Awarded funds for archival collections care for several thousand existing items (playbills, photographs, newspaper articles, letters, information files, and artifacts) from deterioration, vandalism, and fire by protecting paper documents in acid-free file folders/boxes and by storing all items in fireproof cabinets
Top of Oklahoma Historical Society Museum
Blackwell | $20,000 | Collection Management: What and Where? III
Awarded funds for hiring an inventory specialist to identify, research, and photograph artifacts with the data to be placed into a collection software management system. The grant includes $5,000 for creating a storage area for the preservation of items not currently on display.
Tulsa Foundation for Architecture
Tulsa | $20,000 | Digitization of TFA Collections: Phase 2
Awarded funds to provide greater public access to collections by digitizing and uploading approximately 10,000 original archival materials. These items will be available and searchable in an online database accessed through the organization’s website.
2021/2022 Grantees
In the 2021/2022 grant cycle, the Oklahoma Historical Society awarded more than $554,000 to 42 organizations.
95th Division Foundation
Fort Sill | $5,000 | Online resources for increased accessibility of the 95th Division Memorial
Awarded funds to allow the organization to expand beyond its brick-and-mortar location on a military base, which limited easy public access, by transcribing an important collection of oral histories provided by almost a hundred WWII veterans. Their ultimate goal is to eventually place these oral histories online.
Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Bristow | $10,912 | History Speaks - Making our Oral History Collection More Accessible
Awarded funds to develop kiosks to be located in their museum featuring their unique collection of 80 oral histories. The kiosks will allow visitors to view and select a person whose history they would like to hear. Once a segment of the interview has played, the visitor can follow directions to hear the rest of the interview on their own personal device, or they can select another interview.
Chisholm Trail Museum, Inc.
Kingfisher | $12,787 | The Chisholm Collections Care Expansion
Awarded funds to allow staff to inventory, box, and prepare a significant number of artifacts located in the east wing of the museum to ensure items are cataloged with collection management software. The wing contains items currently exposed to possible handling by visitors and have not been inventoried in decades. Through the process, the museum staff and interns will identify and label objects for use following an anticipated renovation.
Claremore Museum of History
Claremore | $20,000 | Lynn Riggs Art Gallery
Awarded funds to create an exhibit space for the newly acquired collection from the personal estates of both Lynn Riggs’ great niece and great nephew, which includes several paintings that were owned and on display in Lynn Riggs’ personal home that was painted by his partner, Ramon Naya, as well as from very well-known painters of the time period that were Lynn Riggs’ personal friends. The exhibit will take these new items and combine them with the personal effects of Lynn Riggs to tell the story of this prolific playwright.
Delaware Nation
Anadarko | $20,000 | Delaware Nation’s Collections Digitization Project
Awarded funds to allow the Delaware Nation to obtain and use the tools necessary to digitize documents comprising a large portion of their collection. These documents range in size from a few square inches to large maps several feet in dimension. Many are quite old, and in urgent need of digitization to ensure their survival. Once digitized, the maps in the collection will serve as the basis for a GIS-enhanced project to map the history and movements of the Lenape people throughout their history.
Drumright Historical Society Museum
Drumright | $20,000 | Creating Storage Space
Awarded funds to allow for the inventorying and rehousing of the vast Oilfield Collection into new modular and open-shelf storage.
Eastern Shawnee Tribe Of Oklahoma
Wyandotte | $20,000 | Exploring Calamas Pond Cemetery
Awarded funds to allow staff to record names in the cemetery and research each individual history and lineage to gather and create a family lineage file. Those files will then be used to create a digital publication which will be available on the tribe’s website and at the library.
Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma
Oklahoma City | $8,000 | Oklahoma Episcopalian History Archive exhibited on The Gateway to Oklahoma
Awarded funds to provide unlimited access to critical historical documents and images by placing them online. This project will see a large range of documents, images, and audio and visual media that were digitized via a grant last year from the Oklahoma Heritage Preservation Grant Program placed with metadata onto The Gateway to Oklahoma History.
Five Civilized Tribes Museum and Center for the Study of Indian Territory
Muskogee | $8,500 | Collections Reframing, Matting, and Repair
Awarded funds to update, preserve and protect 62 items in the permanent collection. This will include reframing and replacement of museum glass and acid-free matting. The collection has been acquired over the past 55 years, and since that time, improvements have been made to how to care for and preserve collections. This grant will allow the museum to preserve these items utilizing current museum best practices.
Freedom Center of Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City | $20,000 | Freedom Center Community Archive
Awarded funds to allow for a partnership with the University of Oklahoma to create a new archive out of the historic materials currently housed inside the Freedom Center building. The center seeks to create a community-based archive from these materials that will ultimately live in the new Clara Luper Civil Rights Center campus in the heart of northeast Oklahoma City.
Friends of the Pawnee Bill Ranch Association
Pawnee | $20,000 | Pawnee Bill Ranch Exterior Interpretive Signs
Awarded funds to install outside signage that will add to the interpretation of the site and provide a mixture of interpretive history as well as maps of the site and information for guests in the form of answers to frequently asked questions. In total, the grant will help fund ten to twelve signs around the site.
Grady County Historical Society
Chickasha | $4,945 | Collections Management and Care - Part 3
Awarded funds to provide adequate and proper storage for current collection items and additional space for new donations. They will purchase two file cabinets and four bookshelves for rehousing collections items.
Greenwood Community Development Corporation/Historic Black Wall Street
Tulsa | $20,000 | Permanent Exhibition: Historic Linkages between Greenwood Tulsa and Black Townships
Awarded funds for an exhibition installation that tells the story and connection of the Greenwood District and Oklahoma’s historic All-Black towns, which will include a map of the physical relationship between Greenwood to the townships, a map of the immigration routes of African Americans to Oklahoma townships, documents and photographs that show the interconnectivity between, genealogies of a sample of Greenwood families and how these interlink with the Black townships, and audio narration from a family member about a genealogy.
Historical Society of the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma
Oklahoma City | $20,000 | The William Hale and John Ramsey Trial Exhibit
Awarded funds for the William Hale and John Ramsey Trial exhibit, which will tell the story of the murder of Osage tribal member, Henry Roan, and its correlation to the 1920s Osage Reign of Terror in Oklahoma. The Hale and Ramsey case was tried in the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, in 1926, and generated national attention.
The Hale and Ramsey Trial exhibit will address the important legal history of Oklahoma and cover critical topics such as the Dawes Allotment Act, oil headrights, race, and tribal lands in Oklahoma -- from an Osage Nation cultural perspective. Critical to the narrative is providing a better understanding of the unique relationship between Native American communities and the US federal government.
Hooker Historical Society
Hooker | $5,000 | Hooker Historical Society Strategic Plan and Budget
Awarded funds for the development of a workable strategic plan, organizational budget, and operating budget to guide the organization utilizing a professional facilitator. Part of the eligibility requirements for the grant program is that the organization must have a strategic plan. If the organization does not have a strategic plan, the only grant an organization could apply for was the development of a strategic plan.
Keystone Crossroads Historical Society
Mannford | $4,040 | Collection Digitization
Awarded funds for a project to digitize their collection of photographs, maps, yearbooks, and historically important documents, along with VHS video and audio cassette tape interviews. Additionally, the Keystone Crossroads Historical Society will partner with the Oklahoma Historical Society to create a partner page on The Gateway to Oklahoma History to house and make accessible to the general public.
Lawton Public Library
Lawton | $20,000 | Microfilm Digitization
Awarded funds to allow for the library to have 6,000 rolls of microfilm that include several local newspapers scanned, digitized, and hosted in their library.
LeFlore County Historical Society
Poteau | $17,010 | Pre-Colombian Artifact Exhibit
Awarded funds for two display cases to house the collection of artifacts from the Spiro Mounds. The grant will also fund additional surveillance cameras to the room to allow for the exhibition of valuable artifacts in a secure manner.
McLoud Historical Society
McLoud | $5,000 | McLoud Public School Featured Display
Awarded funds for a new display featuring McLoud Public School. This display will utilize photos, artifacts, and information to tell the story of the school system and will provide a place for the McLoud Alumni Association and individuals to refer for information and development of those former districts that now lie within the wider McLoud School District. Alumni items and individual donations will be housed in this area for research on past students. Digitization of photos and maps on buildings and people who lived within the district, as well as teachers who served the district, can also be included as people share their precious original photos.
Military History Center
Broken Arrow, OK | $4,039 | Preservation of Documents
Awarded funds for the purchase of three document storage containers to help properly preserve rare historical paper documents and photographs that have been donated to the center.
Ntu Art Association of Oklahoma
Oklahoma City | $10,000 | The Digitization of the Oklahoma African-American Hall of Fame, Inc.
Awarded funds to create a digitized portal with information on inductees of the Oklahoma African-American Hall of Fame (OAAHOF). These inductees have made significant contributions to the cultural and historical fabric of Oklahoma, the nation, and the world. The digitization of the information increases the accessibility of the OAAHOF without regard to the constraints of the physical gallery.
Okeene Historic Preservation Group
Okeene | $20,000 | Okeene History Exhibit Project
Awarded funds to bring traveling exhibits to Okeene from the Oklahoma History Center, the Smithsonian, and the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. With the implementation of this project, Okeene will have an interesting day trip destination for anyone in a 60-mile radius, an educational program will be available for area school children, and anyone passing through can make a comfort stop at our Welcome Center and learn some Oklahoma history!
Oklahoma Christian University, Beam Library, Special Collections
Edmond | $5,000 | Reel to Reel Collection Digitization
Awarded funds for a digitization project of reel-to-reel recordings from Oklahoma Christian University’s Learning Center, an innovative educational design in the 1970s which allowed students to dial up lectures on demand. A vendor will provide digitization services and do preservation work on the reels. Once completed, the digitized files will be made available on the portion of the library website reserved for the special collections, specifically the Digital Collections page.
Oklahoma Forest Heritage Center
Broken Bow | $6,779 | Museum Assessment
Awarded funds for a museum assessment that will address the following: building condition, analysis of climate and light levels, inspection for pests and mold, condition and types of boxes, folders, and other housing materials, condition of each type of materials in collection, security and emergency preparedness plan, space efficiency, policies, and staffing and budget for collections care.
Oklahoma Genealogical Society
Oklahoma City | $3,165 | Development of Hybrid Educational Programs
Awarded funds for the development of a hybrid (in-person and/or online) educational program that will promote the different Oklahoma-based collections maintained by the Oklahoma Genealogical Society (OGS). To accomplish this, OGS will need a new projector for offsite presentations, a subscription to an online virtual platform, and a printed publication that defines the collections and how to gain full access to the databases.
Oklahoma Sports Museum
Guthrie | $17,943 | Digital Audio and Visual Display Kiosks
Awarded funds for four 22” touchscreens and computer kiosk hardware and software in four of the museum’s galleries. These educational kiosk units will provide visitors with a complete understanding of each gallery and the athletes honored. The programs will tell of the Oklahoma history around that particular sport and the many accomplishments that have been made by the Oklahoma athletes and teams.
Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum
Oklahoma City | $6,751 | Fireproof Storage for Oklahoma Fire History
Awarded funds to be the first step in developing the museum’s manuscript collection. The current storage methods used leave many documents vulnerable to degradation, ruin, or loss. Grant funds will allow for the purchase of three fireproof file cabinets, one steel flat file cabinet, an assortment of polyethylene envelopes, and an archival polyester roll to preserve and safeguard the collection.
Old Greer County Museum & Hall of Fame, Inc.
Mangum | $20,000 | Photographic materials digitization and preservation
Awarded funds to digitize and preserve photographic materials such as negatives and prints. This would include the purchase of a professional quality scanner, archival storage sleeves, and boxes for the negatives and prints. There is a vast number of negatives and prints in the museum's collection. Of these, over 1,000 are acid and/or nitrate negatives which are separating and bubbling. The project will allow them to scan the (flammable) acetone and nitrate negatives that are damaged/deteriorated and dispose of the damaged negatives. The next stage is to scan negatives and photos that can be kept and place them in proper storage materials.
Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
Miami | $11,000 | Collection Preservation Project
Awarded funds to bring back to its citizens the lost aspects of culture and artifacts of the tribes that make up the Peoria confederation back to its citizens. Grant funding will add new cases to increase the number of displays, and the ability to reach more tribal citizens in the tribe’s cultural center. The tribe will use the grant funds to purchase additional top-quality archival exhibit cases, humidity control cartridges, and a humidity data logger.
Plains Indians & Pioneers Historical Foundation
Woodward | $11,349 | McDonald Collection Digitization 2022
Awarded funds to catalog, digitize, and move online a vast collection of photographic negatives, slides, and prints donated by the McDonald Studios, which operated throughout most of the 20th century in Woodward, Oklahoma. The studio served an area that covered four counties in Oklahoma, plus southern Kansas and the Texas Panhandle. When the business closed in the early 1990s, approximately 45,000 images were donated. This is phase three of the project and will digitize 4,500 images.
Pottawatomie County Historical Society
Shawnee | $20,000 | Build Cases to Increase Display Capacity
Awarded funds to allow for the purchase of display cases for artifacts currently in storage. The Pottawatomie County Historical Society just moved into a new 12,576-square-foot facility and are in the process of building displays to house its collections.
Rogers County Historical Society, Inc.
Claremore | $9,237 | Preserving RCHS Documents and Photos
Awarded funds to scan items from the collection, which include newspaper articles, photographs, pamphlets, videos (on VHS), and other pieces of historical information, have been saved in folders, files, boxes, and cabinets. In addition to scanning items, they will purchase supplies such as acid-free paper, sheet protectors, file folders, file tabs and labels, and storage boxes.
Sand Springs Cultural and Historical Museum
Sand Springs | $16,315 | Preservation of Artifacts: Photographic and Oral
Awarded funds to enable the museum to purchase cabinets for archival storage and ultimately to display large photographs for historical research and to better tell the story of Sand Springs. The grant will also be used to have the panoramic photographs unrolled to lie flat. Lastly, audio tape cassettes and video files are to be transferred to more modern media.
Seminole Nation Museum
Wewoka | $20,000 | Exhibition Redesign and Implementation
Awarded funds for the redesign of a 2,000-square-foot exhibit space that was first developed in 1992 and celebrates the story of Wewoka and its impact on the Oklahoma oil boom and the state’s rich railroad history. This will be in conjunction with the upcoming 100th anniversary of Wewoka in 2023.
Southern Nazarene University
Bethany | $14,267 | Preserving and Making Accessible Recordings at Risk
Awarded funds to add over 450 audio recordings and videos to the collection, significantly increasing the scope of audio and video holdings. Once items targeted in this proposal are digitized, all these recordings will be accessible through the university’s library catalog.
Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar
Stillwater | $19,299 | Rehousing and Digitization of Helt Photography Studio Wedding Negatives for Public Access
Awarded funds to remove negatives from the Helt Collection from non-archival sleeves and envelopes, rehousing them in polypropylene sleeves, and then placing them in acid-free envelopes. Information will be transferred to acid-free envelopes and entered into collection management software as items are cataloged. Envelopes will be placed into acid-free storage boxes and relocated to secure space. Additionally, a sample of negatives will be selected from each wedding to be digitized.
The Town of Colony
Colony | $20,000 | Oral Historical Narrative and Book
Awarded funds to create a digital video narrative and written book that will enhance and advance the educational and preservation efforts achieved through the partnership of the City of Colony; Colony Community in Action, Inc.; the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes; and individual citizens who have invested in historic properties, museum, and archival collections, a museum display, public art, and public programming throughout the year.
Top of Oklahoma Historical Society Museum
Blackwell | $20,000 | Collection Management: Part II
Awarded funds for the hiring of a person with technical skills to use collection management software to create a digital inventory of items in four rooms of the museum. This will include identification, research, and photographing of all items.
Tulsa Foundation for Architecture
Tulsa | $20,000 | Collections Digitization
Awarded funds to provide greater public access to their collections, which consists of over 35,000 architectural drawings, renderings, tracings, photographs/slides, bound periodicals, sets of specifications, and books that document the history of Art Deco and other styles of architecture in the city of Tulsa and in the state of Oklahoma. Creating digitized scans of the originals will provide global online access and also provide a revenue stream for the sustainability of the collections entrusted to our care. The goal of this project is to digitize a minimum of 5,000 works from our collection, beginning with those most frequently requested.
Wynnewood Historical Society
Wynnewood | $3,600 | Digitation and Online Publishing of the Wynnewood Gazette Archives
Awarded funds to provide allow for the digitization of 30 plus rolls of microfilm, which will be published, with the gracious copyright permission of the publishers of the Wynnewood Gazette, on The Gateway to Oklahoma History website. This will ensure that the history of Wynnewood, through the archives of the Gazette, is preserved using the most modern technology and will be available for generations to come.
2020/2021 Grantees
Just over $460,000 in grant funds were awarded to 40 organozations for the 2020/2021 grant cycle.
95th Division Foundation
Oklahoma City | $7,974 | Development of Online Resources for increased accessibility of the 95th Division Memorial
Chickasha Public Library
Chickasha | $20,000 | Digitizing Chickasha Newspapers
Chisholm Trail Museum, Inc.
Kingfisher | $16,686 | Chisholm Trail Museum Educational Development Initiative
Claremore Museum of History
Claremore | $9,846 | On-Site Artifact Storage
Cleveland County Historical Society and Moore-Lindsay Historic House Museum
Norman | $7,000 | Collection Management and Preservation
Drumright Historical Society
Drumright | $2,265 | Collections Management and Storage
Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
Wyandotte | $15,827 | Finding the Faces to the 1938 Base Role
Edmond Historic Preservation Trust
Edmond | $1,000 | Strategic Plan Development
The Edwards Store, Inc.
Oklahoma City | $14,004 | Restoration Phase One: Documentation and Interventions
Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma
Oklahoma City | $20,000 | Collection Digitization
Friends of Fort Gibson Foundation
Fort Gibson | $20,000 | Exhibits for 1870s Hospital Museum
Friends of Fort Towson, Inc.
Fort Towson | $4,700 | Fort Towson Historic Site Handbook
Friends of Historic Fort Supply
Woodward | $3,685 | Sustaining and Keeping Open Historic Fort Supply
Friends of Rentiesville Blues, Inc.
Rentiesville | $7,500 | Digitization of OK Blues Legend D. C. Minner's Original Music Archive
Friends of the Murrell Home
Park Hill | $9,000 | Hunter's Home 2021 Virtual Exhibits
Friends of the Pawnee Bill Ranch Association
Pawnee | $20,000 | Diorama Repair and Revitalization
Grady County Historical Society
Chickasha | $4,000 | Preservation of Special Collections
Greenwood Community Development Corporation/Historic Black Wall Street
Tulsa | $5,000 | Advisory Board and Strategic Plan Development
Keystone Crossroads Historical Society
Mannford | $4,000 | Strategic Plan: Keystone Crossroads Historical Society
Landmark for all Generations, Inc.
Okmulgee | $4,000 | Marketing Plan and Strategy
Lawton Public Library
Lawton | $20,000 | Digital Conversion/Memory Lab
LeFlore County Historical Society
Poteau | $10,000 | Preserving Collections Archive Room
The Military History Center
Broken Arrow | $9,013 | Development of Audio Guided Tours
Modoc Nation
Miami | $19,125 | Modoc Nation Museum Phase 2: Research, Digitization, and Planning
Museum of Horseshoeing, Inc.
Oklahoma City | $20,000 | Museum Tour Experience Implementation
Okeene Historic Preservation Group
Okeene | $14,238 | Okeene History Preservation Project
Oklahoma Sports Museum Association
Guthrie | $10,890 | Protection and Display of Historical Artifacts
The Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
Miami | $11,000 | Collection Preservation Project
Plains Indians & Pioneers Museum
Woodward | $9,909 | McDonald Collection Digitization: Next Phase
Preservation Oklahoma, Inc.
Oklahoma City | $9,068 | Enhancing the Visitor Experience at the Overholser Mansion
Rogers County Historical Society, Inc.
Claremore | $6,750 | Enhancing Our Visitors' Experience Through Educational Signage
Seminole Nation Museum
Wewoka | $20,000 | Rehousing and Accessioning of Collections
Southern Nazarene University
Bethany | $8,810 | Digitization of Route 66, Interurban, and Main Street Intersections in Bethany
Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar
Stillwater | $9,347 | Textile Collection Assessment, Rehousing, and PastPerfect Data Entry
Three Rivers Museum of Muskogee
Muskogee | $13,014 | Preserving Our Collection
Top of Oklahoma Historical Society Museum
Blackwell | $20,000 | Collection Management: What and Where?
The Town of Colony
Colony | $20,000 | Historical Markers: Tracing the History of Colony
Town of McCurtain
McCurtain | $18,775 | McCurtain Historic Preservation and Revitalization Project
U.S. Cavalry Association
El Reno | $11,000 | Website Design
Western Trail Historical Society
Altus | $7,657 | Oral History Collection: Transcriptions and Database
2019/2020 Grantees
A total of just over $410,000 in grant funds were awarded for the 2019/2020 grant cycle to 43 organizations.
Atoka County Historical Society
Atoka | $17,492 | Collections Digitization
Awarded funds for a collections digitization project that will help create a database storage system for collections archiving. The project will include the purchase of PastPerfect software, a scanner, online training, digital camera, new computer, and temporary staff for one year.
Bristow Historical Society Inc
Bristow | $6,000 | Bristow’s Story - Chapter II
Awarded funds for an oral history project that will mimic an oral history collection they have from the 1980s. They will hire a part-time person to interview forty Bristow citizens for one-hour interviews reflecting a cross-section of the community.
Cherokee Heritage Center
Tahlequah | $8,100 | Cherokee Heritage Center Strategic Plan
Awarded funds to contract with a professional facilitator for a new and updated strategic plan. Part of the eligibility requirements for the grant program is that the organization must have a strategic plan. If the organization does not have a strategic plan, the only grant an organization could apply for was the development of a strategic plan.
Chisholm Trail Museum
Kingfisher | $20,000 | Collections Storage
Awarded funds for phase two of a multi-phase improvement plan for the museum to modernize its collection area, provide climate control, and meet established best practices. They will create a new dedicated space for collection storage, which will include items such as new shelving, storage materials, storage racks, and a dedicated setup space for collections and exhibit preparation.
Choctaw County Genealogical Society
Hugo | $3,500 | Voices of Choctaw County, Oklahoma - Oral History
Awarded funds to create a collection of oral histories based on interviews with older Choctaw County citizens. The grant will help fund the purchase of media equipment such as lighting, carrying cases, microphones, and recorders, and also pay for transcription services.
City of Wagoner
Wagoner | $20,000 | Acquire the Shirle Lamb Williams Collection
Awarded funds to purchase the collection of Shirle Lamb Williams, who is a descendant of Wagoner’s earliest settlers. The collection includes artifacts and photos from the early 1900s and late 1800s and archival items such as first the city treasurer’s book.
Claremore Museum of History
Claremore | $15,725 | MoH Security System
Awarded funds to update the security system as part of meeting industry standards for the organization to be eligible for American Alliance of Museums accreditation and loans from other institutions, as well as protection of valuable collections. This will include indoor and outdoor cameras, management software, access control, smoke/heat detectors, and a burglar alarm.
Cleveland County Historical Society and Moore-Lindsay Historic House Museum
Norman | $4,950 | Creating a Multi-Sensory Museum Experience
Awarded funds to add multi-sensory items in the house museum to enhance the experience with smells, sounds, and tactile experiences. They will also create a touchscreen guide that will add to the interpretation and allow for better enjoyment for visitors who are unable to get upstairs due to accessibility constraints.
Delaware Tribe of Indians
Bartlesville | $6,500 | Develop Strategic Plan for Delaware Tribe Cultural Center
Awarded funds to develop a strategic plan through the help of a professional facilitator for the cultural center. Part of the eligibility requirements for the grant program is that the organization must have a strategic plan. If the organization does not have a strategic plan, the only grant an organization could apply for was the development of a strategic plan.
Drumright Historical Society
Drumright | $1,000 | Development of Five-Year Strategic Plan
Awarded funds to develop a strategic plan utilizing a paid facilitator. Part of the eligibility requirements for the grant program is that the organization must have a strategic plan. If the organization does not have a strategic plan, the only grant an organization could apply for was the development of a strategic plan.
Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
Wyandotte | $20,000 | Photograph Preservation Project
Awarded funds to facilitate digital storage for a photograph preservation project, which will facilitate digital storage for a photo collection, identify and create a catalog for the collection using PastPerfect, and process the collection.
Edmond Historical Society & Museum
Edmond | $2,800 | Route 66 Exhibit Structure & Signage
Awarded funds for elements of a new exhibit on Route 66.
Fort Sill Chiricahua/Warm Springs Apache Tribe
Apache | $10,024 | Preservation Storage
Awarded funds to create a solution to difficulties relating to the long-term storage of the Prisoner of War Audio Collection, which recorded Apache prisoners of war seized with Geronimo in 1886. The collection includes over 400 hours of reel to reels and cassettes that were recently digitized. In order to transfer the collection to a new long-term server, the organization will need to compile, digitize, and integrate the collection before it can be uploaded.
Friends of Historic Fort Supply
Fort Supply | $3,591 | Developing a sustainable tour guide and public accessibility plan
Awarded funds hire a contractor to act as a tour guide for the summer of 2020. In addition to having the site, open this tour guide will help to develop training documents for future tour guides to allow for sustainability for a future contractor or volunteer program.
Friends of the Murrell Home
Park Hill | $7,782 | Hunter’s Home Heritage Livestock Program
Awarded funds to purchase supplies necessary to build a sheep program at Hunter’s Home. This will allow for the creation of a year-round heritage program to include shearing, range management, and preventative care. It will also help create a fiber arts program (wool, knitting).
Friends of the Pawnee Bill Ranch Association
Pawnee | $20,000 | Exhibit Renovation
Awarded funds to create new exhibit text and display in the main gallery area, which has not been updated since 1969. This new exhibit, with proper lighting/cases, etc., will better protect artifacts on display and will place more importance on educational and interpretive aspects of Pawnee Bill, placing him in a larger context of Oklahoma history.
Goingsnake District Heritage Association
Westville | $5,000 | Programming Technology Upgrade
Awarded funds to enhance the organization’s main form of serving the public via monthly public meetings. In an effort to better serve the community and possibly reach a larger audience, they will purchase equipment to allow for presentations to be more IT-friendly and, in turn, allow for presentations to be put online. This will include a laptop, digital projector, website revamp, digital scanner, and camcorder. They would use these digital enhancements to serve a wider audience via their website. They will also use the scanner and camera to put collections and vertical files online.
Grady County Historical Society
Chickasha | $10,000 | Collections Management and Care
Awarded funds for the purchase of collections care items such as fire-resistant cabinets, tissue paper, folders, archival boxes, book and document scanner, and gloves.
Historical Society of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma
Oklahoma City | $18,300 | Machine Gun Kelly Kidnapping Case Exhibit
Awarded funds for an exhibit that will cover the trial, national relevance, and societal response to the kidnapping of Charles Urschel from his Heritage Hills home by Machine Gun Kelly and his gang. It will include Urschel family scrapbooks currently held in the organization’s collection.
Landmark for All Generations
Okmulgee | $6,587 | Landmark for all Generation Historical Marker
Awarded funds for a historical marker for the Okmulgee Black Hospital. This will include site preparation, concrete foundation, granite marker, and lighting.
McLoud Historical Society Museum and Heritage Center
McLoud | $5,000 | Blackberry Era Display, 30 years as Blackberry Capital of the World
Awarded funds for an exhibit that will explore the historic basis for the annual Blackberry Festival in McLoud.
Mid-Continent Geological Library (MCGL)
Oklahoma City | $20,000 | Digitization of Historical Oklahoma Sample Strip Log Collection
Awarded funds to digitize sample strip logs from the 1920s to 1967 from most counties in Oklahoma, particularly the Oklahoma City Field and West Edmond Field. This collection will serve geologists, engineers, hydrologists, earth scientists, small municipalities, and also be used in academic research.
Modoc Nation
Miami | $5,390 | Strategic Action Planning Project
Awarded funds to hire a consultant to develop a more robust cultural institution and create a phasing plan for continued development. The organization’s end goal is the development of a new tribal museum.
Muscogee Historical & Cultural Foundation
Okmulgee | $13,000 | Native American Storytelling Series
Awarded funds for a series of storytelling events that will be free to the public in Tulsa coupled with ticketed educational storytelling workshops. Additionally, two events will be held in Muskogee and Okmulgee. The grant will cover the honorarium for the four artists and the videography/audio recording production of events.
Okeene Historic Preservation Group
Okeene | $4,387 | Okeene Historic Preservation Group Five-Year Strategic Plan
Awarded funds to hire a professional to facilitate the development of a strategic plan. Part of the eligibility requirements for the grant program is that the organization must have a strategic plan. If the organization does not have a strategic plan, the only grant an organization could apply for was the development of a strategic plan.
Oklahoma Conservation Historical Society, Inc.
Drummond | $1,500 | The Oklahoma Conservation Historical Society Strategic Plan
Awarded funds to hire a professional facilitator to lead them through the development of a strategic plan. Part of the eligibility requirements for the grant program is that the organization must have a strategic plan. If the organization does not have a strategic plan, the only grant an organization could apply for was the development of a strategic plan.
Oklahoma African American Educators Hall of Fame, Inc.
Clearview | $15,500 | Oklahoma African American Educators Hall of Fame Kiosks
Awarded funds to create two mobile kiosks containing biographical and video information about inductees. One kiosk will be located in the African American experience exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center, and the other will be at the Oklahoma African American Educators Hall of Fame in Clearview.
Oklahoma Genealogical Society (OGS)
Oklahoma City | $20,000 | Preservation of First Families of Twin Territories and Promotion of Settlers/Builders and Oklahoma Military Records
Awarded funds to digitize three major collections held by the Oklahoma Genealogical Society. These are prominent collections that affect numerous OGS members and Oklahomans. The grant will provide for a scanner with installation and training and promotion materials for newly digitized records
Oklahoma Forest Heritage Center (FHC)
Broken Bow | $20,000 | FHC Courtyard Exhibit
Awarded funds for a portion of a larger project, which is an outdoor exhibit including exterior and interior grade interpretive signs, creation of a walking path, and building a new deck with a fire tower cab replica. The grant will pay for the interpretive sign portion of the outdoor exhibit.
Plains Indians & Pioneers Museum (PIPM)
Woodward | $11,178 | McDonald Collection Digitization
Awarded funds to catalog, digitize, and move online a vast collection of photographic negatives, slides, and prints in the PIPM collection. From a studio collection that served four counties and operated for most of the 20th century. The project will include 5,000 of the 45,000 images housed in the collection.
Rogers County Historical Society
$5,400 | Strategic Planning for Rogers County Historical Society
Awarded funds to develop a strategic plan with the help of a facilitator to help the organization make a decision relating to the finance and preservation of and continued involvement with the Belvidere Mansion and Totem Pole Park. Part of the eligibility requirements for the grant program is that the organization must have a strategic plan. If the organization does not have a strategic plan, the only grant an organization could apply for was the development of a strategic plan.
Sand Springs Cultural and Historical Museum
Sand Springs | $3,500 | Story Board Redesign
Awarded funds to redesign outdated storyboards telling the history of Charles Page and the Children’s Home of Sand Springs. This new interpretation will have more modern graphics and an updated narrative.
Seminole Nation Museum
Wewoka | $20,000 | “An Everlasting Fire: The Seminoles of Oklahoma” - Implementation Phase
Awarded funds for an exhibit exploring the Seminole Nation history and customs from origins in the Southeast all the way to the 21st century. It will replace the existing “all purpose” exhibit, which has been in existence in varying forms since the museum’s opening in 1974. The museum has been working with a five-member committee of Seminole tribal members. Construction of the exhibit space has been completed, which included new industry-standard exhibit cases and lighting. Grant funds will be for the development and installation of panels, graphics, and digital content.
Southern Nazarene University Archives
Bethany | $12,500 | Rehousing to Increase Accessibility and Usage
Awarded funds to create a comprehensive plan for storage of archival collections and relocate holdings. Currently archives are dispersed in multiple locations, and searchability of the collection is also limited. The library has increased the collection of artwork, artifacts, and digital media, and now needs to create better archival storage. The grant will fund the storage materials preservation supplies, environmental monitoring equipment, and staff time.
Stephens County Genealogy Library
Duncan | $1,916 | Preservation Implementation
Awarded funds for the implementation of preservation upgrades to purchase UV-light filter sleeves for current florescent lights and a data logger to track humidity.
Stillwater Public Library
Stillwater | $8,460 | Special Collection Strategic Plan Development
Awarded funds to hire a specialist to have one pre-planning meeting and four planning sessions to create a strategic plan that is specific to special collections. Part of the eligibility requirements for the grant program is that the organization must have a strategic plan. If the organization does not have a strategic plan, the only grant an organization could apply for was the development of a strategic plan.
Stroud Public Library
Stroud | $1,000 | Archive & Preservation Policy/Governing Documents Workshop
Awarded funds to secure long-term management and care of items housed at the library. Currently, they do not have an archival policy or preservation plan. They will hire an expert to help write a comprehensive archive and preservation policy for their local history collection.
Talbot Library & Museum Association
Colcord | $900 | Strategic Plan Development
Awarded funds to utilize a consultant to develop a strategic plan. Part of the eligibility requirements for the grant program is that the organization must have a strategic plan. If the organization does not have a strategic plan, the only grant an organization could apply for was the development of a strategic plan.
The Edwards Store, Inc.
Red Oak | $10,000 | Stone Chimney Protection
Awarded funds for the protection of two native stone chimneys from the 1850s and 1870s through stabilization techniques using a log cabin restoration expert who will use industrial shrink-wrap embedded with wooden lathes. The organization’s long term hope is to raise funds to have the chimneys restored. This process will preserve them until that time.
The Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar
Stillwater | $9,076 | Digitization of Stillwater Ledgers, Dockets, and Minutes (1888-1950)
Awarded funds for phase one of an ongoing project that will allow for the purchase of a scanner to digitize twelve linear-feet of documents in the collection, install a replacement network server to store the images, a PastPerfect software upgrade, and hire a student to digitize the collection.
Three Rivers Museum of Muskogee
Muskogee | $5,000 | Development of a Strategic Plan
Awarded funds for the development of a strategic plan utilizing a paid consultant. Part of the eligibility requirements for the grant program is that the organization must have a strategic plan. If the organization does not have a strategic plan, the only grant an organization could apply for was the development of a strategic plan.
Western Trail Historical Society
Altus | $8,037 | Museum of the Western Prairie Oral History Collection: Digitization and Transcription
Awarded funds to digitize an oral history collection from the 1970s and 1980s currently on cassette tapes. Topics included in the collection are club histories, depression-era stories, and the WWII POW experience. Once the collection is digitized, fifty interviews will be selected to be transcribed, edited, timestamped, and indexed.
Wilson Historical Society, Inc.
Wilson | $1,880 | Wilson Oral Histories
Awarded funds for an oral history project, which will obtain twenty-five to thirty oral histories from current and former Wilson-area residents. After attending an oral history workshop, three board members are now trained and dedicated to conducting, editing, and transcribing the finished product. The funds will aid in the purchase of software, a digital camera, an external hard drive, and flash drives.
