Executive Director, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.
Dr. Bob Blackburn, executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City, explains how the state’s history is a rich resource waiting to be tapped by any meeting or convention group:
“Nothing adds value to a meeting or conference like access to local history. Sometimes history is easy to find, such as at the Alamo, the French Quarter or the Freedom Trail. More commonly, though, access to local heritage is subtle and harder to find, especially in places like Oklahoma where history is relatively recent with compelling stories that radiate in all directions.”
A good introduction is the Oklahoma History Center, a 215,000-square-foot museum and research facility located next to the State Capitol in Oklahoma City. Along with spectacular meeting spaces, exhibits combine a big picture of state history with focal points ranging from ancient Indian tribes and land runs to oil rigs and space capsules.
For visitors seeking frontier history filled with Indians, soldiers, and cowboys, options include the National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City; Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, a.k.a. Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa; and Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art in Shawnee. All three museums mix art with historic artifacts to paint a portrait of a land under constant change, whether it is the landscape of the American West or survival of ancient traditions handed down through the generations.
For the more adventurous, bus tours provide access to historic buildings, sites, and districts that offer a sense of place that cannot be captured within walls. One of the most popular tours is historic Route 66, which connects Oklahoma City and Tulsa along a paved artery of popular culture, oil derricks and lost Americana. Other tour options include historic neighborhoods such as Heritage Hills in Oklahoma City or the historic buildings on the University of Oklahoma in Norman campus.
More somber tour sites are the Tulsa Race Riot Reconciliation Park in Tulsa and the Oklahoma City Memorial Museum in Oklahoma City. Although both commemorate disasters in Oklahoma history, each is filled with a sense of peace and reconciliation that will tug at any visitor’s heart.”
