Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, is a museum northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma housing the world’s largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West, as well as a growing collection of art and artifacts from Central and South America. The museum is named for Thomas Gilcrease, an oil man, and avid art collector who began the collection. He deeded the collection and the building and property to the City of Tulsa in 1958. Since a public-private partnership between the City of Tulsa and the University of Tulsa has managed on July 1, 2008, Gilcrease Museum. The Helmerich Center for American Research at Gilcrease Museum was added in 2014 for $14 million to provide a secure archival area where researchers can access any of the more than 100,000 books, documents, maps, and unpublished materials that the museum has acquired.
History
Thomas Gilcrease grew up in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in present-day eastern Oklahoma. At the turn of the 20th century, the federal government allotted lands collectively held by American Indian tribes to private citizens. His tribal membership entitled him to an allotment of 160 acres (0.65 km2) located just south of Tulsa, OK. The land subsequently became part of one of Oklahoma’s first major oil fields, the Glenn Pool Oil Reserve, where the town of Glenpool was later established. Gilcrease proved to be an able businessman. In 1922, he founded the Gilcrease Oil Company and, in less than ten years, had greatly expanded his original holdings. Thomas Gilcrease traveled extensively in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. His visits to European museums inspired him to create his collection. Pride in his American Indian heritage and interest in the history of the American West provided a focus for his collecting. Bed Bug Exterminator Tulsa
Archival Collection
The archival collection at Gilcrease Museum contains over 100,000 books, manuscripts, documents, and maps from 1494 to the present. Items of special interest are A letter dictated and signed by Diego Columbus in 1512, the Cortez Decree of 1521, copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation (signed by Benjamin Franklin), and a letter written by Thomas Jefferson dated July 1, 1776. The museum also has a substantial collection of manuscripts by Cherokee principal chief John Ross and Choctaw Chief Peter Pitchlynn.
Gilcrease Garden
Using the Gilcrease collections as a guide, themed gardens have been developed on twenty-three of the museum’s 460 acres (1.9 km2). These gardens enhance the museum’s collections by reflecting gardening styles and techniques from four time periods in the American West: Pre-Columbian, Pioneer, Colonial, Victorian, and rock gardens.
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