Gilcrease Museum
Art Museum | |
Founder | Thomas Gilcrease |
---|---|
Owner | City of Tulsa |
Website | gilcrease.org |
Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art,
History
Thomas Gilcrease grew up in the
Gilcrease purchased his first
Gilcrease collected at a time when few people were interested in the art or history of the
Thomas Gilcrease then deeded his collection to the city of Tulsa in 1955. In 1958, the Gilcrease Foundation conveyed the museum buildings and grounds to the city of Tulsa. In addition, Gilcrease committed oil property revenue to Tulsa for assistance in maintaining the museum until the $2.25 million bond was fully repaid. In the years following the transfer of the collection, Thomas Gilcrease continued to fund archaeological excavations and acquire additional materials for the collection. Upon his death in 1962, he bequeathed to the museum the material he had collected during his final years.
Many famous American artists have their work displayed in Gilcrease Museum's American West Gallery. Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Remington, Thomas Moran, and Joseph Henry Sharp are featured prominently. Also on display at the Gilcrease Museum are works by Charles Marion Russell, Alexandre Hogue, and John James Audubon. After his death in 1955, the widow of artist William Robinson Leigh gave his New York studio to the Gilcrease Museum.[5]
Thomas Gilcrease believed that the story of the American West could be told through art and that the history of the Native Americans and his own American Indian heritage could be expressed through
Gilcrease Museum has a long-term native American exhibition. Enduring Spirit: Native American Artistic Traditions permits the museum to showcase some of the major strengths of the permanent collection as well as provide a much more comprehensive and integrated presentation of the museum's native American art collections.
Currently, the museum owns about 10,000 pieces of art, including 18 of the 22 bronze sculptures that were created by Frederic Remington.
On July 1, 2008, the University of Tulsa assumed management of the museum through a public-private partnership with the City of Tulsa.[6]
Anthropology
At Gilcrease Museum, the
These diverse materials help tell the story of the many peoples and cultures that have made the history and exploration of the new world unique and complex. Especially noteworthy in the archaeological collections at Gilcrease Museum are items from the Mississippi valley region (present-day Illinois and Arkansas), the southwestern U.S. (Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona), and ancient Mexico. Gilcrease Museum has one of the most important collections of pre-Columbian projectile points (arrow and spear heads) in North America, and has become a resource that is regularly consulted by archaeologists. The museum also has a research facility containing sliding glass display shelves for artifacts and a computer database system to help find various pieces. This facility, the Kravis Discovery Center, also has numerous "touchable" items for a hands-on experience for its visitors.
Archival collection
The archival collection at Gilcrease Museum contains over 100,000 books, manuscripts, documents, and maps ranging 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.[4]
Helmerich Center
The Helmerich Center for American Research at Gilcrease Museum is an archival center on the museum grounds that permits researchers to access the many rare documents housed at the museum. These items may only be used in the Reading Room, an environmentally controlled, secure area, designed to protect them against loss or damage.[a] The documents themselves are stored in a hardened concrete structure that was designed to protect them from severe weather events like tornadoes. The secured connector passage between the Reading Room and the document storage area was inspired by the "Vasari Corridor" in Florence, Italy. The same structure that contains the Reading Room also contains the Great Hall, which is used for many purposes, such as fund raising events, conferences, and short-term gallery displays. The center was designed by Hastings & Chivetta, completed in 2014, contains 32,000 square feet (3,000 m2) of space and cost approximately $14 million to construct.[3]
Gilcrease gardens
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
, as well as a rock garden.Gilcrease is the only known art museum to have these educational and inspirational gardens on one site nestled in the Osage Hills. Special garden tours are available by appointment.
Rebuilding
Voters approved an 0.6 percent sales tax (known as Vision 2025) on April 5, 2016,[7] which proposed to allocate $65 million for a major expansion/improvement program of Gilcrease Museum.[8] However, the project morphed into an $83.6 million plan to build an entirely new museum after it was determined that modifying the existing museum to modern standards would be too expensive.[9] Demolition of the old building and the start of the new is expected to begin in 2022, with completion projected by early 2025.[9] The Helmerich Center, as well as the Thomas Gilcrease house and the mausoleum on the property, will remain.[9]
See also
Notes
- ^ The museum houses approximately 100,000 rare books, documents, maps and unpublished works.
References
- ^ "Homepage". Gilcrease Museum. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
- ^ Shannon Muchmore, "Mutually beneficial Museum's attendance, fundraising up". Tulsa World, July 5, 2009. November 3, 2016.
- ^ a b "Helmerich Center for American Research at Gilcrease Museum." Hastings+Chivetta . 2016 Accessed November 3, 2016.
- ^ a b c "Gilcrease Museum"; Erwin, Sarah; Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
- ^ Don C. Wood. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Maidstone Manor Farm" (PDF). State of West Virginia, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2011-06-02.
- ^ Shannon Muchmore, "Mutually beneficial Museum's attendance, fundraising up". Tulsa World, July 5, 2009. Accessed November 3, 2016.
- ^ "Gilcrease Museum and Vision Tulsa". Gilcrease Museum. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
- ^ Wade, Jarrel. "Gilcrease Museum has big plans for Vision funds". Tulsa World. April 11, 2016. Accessed November 13, 2016.
- ^ a b c "The new Gilcrease Museum building will be taller, thinner, but won't look much different from road". Kevin Canfield, Tulsa World, December 11, 2020. 11 December 2020.
External links
- Gilcrease Museum Website
- Gilcrease Museum info, photos and video on TravelOK.com Official travel and tourism website for the State of Oklahoma
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Gilcrease Museum
- Karp, Walter, "Thomas Gilcrease And His Western Museum", American Heritage, February 1990. "How Creek Indian number 1501 repaid a debt."(subscription required)
- Voices of Oklahoma interview. First person interview conducted on July 11, 2017, with grandson and great-grandsons of Thomas Gilcrease.