Oklahoma Hub Collections Now Discoverable in DPLA

News from the Digital Public Library of America

January 17, 2018

Welcome, Oklahoma! Over 100,000 records from our newest partner, OK Hub, are now discoverable in DPLA. The Oklahoma Hub represents a collaboration between lead partners The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, with extensive resources from Oklahoma Historical Society and Oklahoma Department of Libraries. Together, these collections offer unique new resources, particularly in the areas of Native American history and culture, environmental and agricultural science, and the lives and experiences of generations of Oklahomans.

Students and scholars of the settlement of the Oklahoma frontier will find thousands of photographs from the collections of Oklahoma Historical Society, including photos from the Oklahoma Publishing Company, which started operating as such in 1903 in Oklahoma City and continues today.  Images in these collections capture everyday life for the diverse residents of turn-of-the-century Oklahoma, including members of diverse Native American groups including Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Kiowa. Together with The University of Oklahoma’s Indian Pioneer Oral Histories conducted in the 1930s and the Duke Collection of American Indian Oral Histories (1967-1972), these rich new materials on testify to the tension between cultural perseverance and assimilation as well as a decades-long process of negotiating the allotment of one of America’s most treasured resources: land.

In addition to extensive new collections on the history of the Oklahoma frontier and Native American communities, Oklahoma’s collections offer great content on topics that will serve learners of all types, including students, scholars, and family researchers. Oklahoma State University’s Oklahoma A&M College World War I collection consists of responses to a 1919 survey of the men and women of Oklahoma A&M who served in World War I and joins an already rich body of material in DPLA on the personal dimensions of World War I. Oklahoma State has also shared its centenarian oral history collection, offering a view of Oklahoma’s customs and history through the personal lens of men and women who have lived there for (at least) one hundred years. The postcard collectionfrom Oklahoma Department of Libraries documents significant scenes, buildings, and landscapes in early Oklahoma, such as this view of Purcell, Oklahoma’s “New-star-state-hood day” in 1907.  

Family historians will find more than 7,000 pension applications for Confederate veterans or their widows. Documents in this collection from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries include formal applications, often handwritten, as well as other related documents, including correspondence and affidavits submitted as proof of service.

Finally, our newest contributors offer several great resources on the art and science of agriculture. OSU’s Oklahoma Mesonet Oral History Project documents the founding and impact of the Oklahoma Mesonet, an expansive system that continually measures environmental conditions across the state and serves farmers, meteorologists, emergency responders and more. The Centennial Farm Families project captures the experiences of individuals and families who have been involved in farming or ranching in Oklahoma for over a century.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/archived-news/spring-2018/oklahoma-hub-collections-now-discoverable-in-dpla

Last Updated: 7 September 2018