OHS EXTRA! - Like a rocket!

National Portrait Gallery highlights the life of Oklahoma's own Will Rogers 

One Life: Will Rogers is the National Portrait Gallery’s first exhibition to be presented exclusively on its website. A special selection of portraits, broadsides, posters, paintings, drawings, and a sampling of videos illustrate the story of Rogers's life from birth in Indian Territory through his death in an Alaskan plane crash. The exhibition can be accessed on any device. Once selected, images link the viewer with comprehensive captions exploring his career as a writer, a radio broadcaster, an actor on stage and screen, and a popular trick roper. His biography is featured in digital format, spanning vaudeville, silent films, “talkies,” radio, and newspaper—proving that he lifted the nation’s spirits during some of its most trying times, such as World War I and the recession that followed, as well as the Great Depression.

Two years ago, James Barber, now retired historian and curator of the National Portrait Gallery, visited the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore to see its collections. He chose images and historical documents that would become the final exhibit. "He spent several days here, selecting and viewing artifacts for what was to be a gallery exhibition," said Jennifer Holt, Will Rogers Memorial Museum curator. However, due to the pandemic, the project was postponed one year. Eventually, it was determined the material would become an online exhibition, which was launched on June 25, 2021.

Since 2006, the National Portrait Gallery has held 17 exhibitions in the series “One Life,” which is dedicated to the biography of a single figure. “It is certainly an honor to have Will Rogers’s life depicted on such a prestigious site,” said Tad Jones, Will Rogers Memorial Museum's director. “The new format allows the viewing audience to expand worldwide while the exhibit can be read in two languages.” The exhibit is available on the National Portrait Gallery’s website until January 30, 2022.

This exhibition is cocurated by retired National Portrait Gallery historian and curator James Barber and historian Kate Clarke Lemay. This exhibition has been funded in part by the Guenther and Siewchin Yong Sommer Endowment Fund and a grant from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee. 

Honey Springs Battlefield will host a special presentation about the contributions of the First Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. The program will be held at the Honey Springs Battlefield Visitor Center on Friday, July 23, at 7 p.m. Retired professor and award-winning author Art T. Burton will speak about the soldiers of the First Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment who fought bravely at the Battle of Honey Springs on July 17, 1863.

The First Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment soldiers were well-trained and equipped. In October 1862, they were attacked by Confederate forces near Butler, Missouri, in the Battle of Island Mound, making them the first African American Union regiment to shed blood in action against the enemy during the Civil War. The unit also saw action at Cabin Creek Battlefield, Indian Territory, before arriving at Honey Springs Battlefield, Indian Territory.

Art T. Burton specializes in research of Black Americans in the Wild West and how they shaped history. As an author, he distinguished himself in 1991 when he wrote the first book about Black American and American Indian outlaws and lawmen in the Wild West. He is the author of Black, Red, and Deadly: Black and Indian Gunfighters of the Indian Territory, 1870–1907. This title was followed by his next book: Black, Buckskin, and Blue: African American Scouts and Soldiers on the Western Frontier, written in 1999, which was also a first of its kind. Burton has since written two biographical works: Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves (2008) and Cherokee Bill: Black Cowboy—Indian Outlaw (2020). In his most recent book, Burton gives great detail on how a veteran of the First Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Deputy US Marshal Ike Rogers, captured the notorious Indian Territory outlaw Cherokee Bill.

Rocket class blasts off!

The Oklahoma History Center will hold a Rocket class on Saturday, July 24, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The program is being held in conjunction with the exhibit Launch to Landing: Oklahomans and Space.

The Rocket class will begin with a behind-the-scenes tour, followed by hands-on history activities related to space exploration. In the last half of the class, participants will make their own water bottle rockets and take turns launching them toward space! The class is $15 for Oklahoma Historical Society members and $20 for nonmembers. Limited to 10 participants of all ages, the suggested age is 6-12. Registration closes on Friday, July 16.

The Oklahoma History Center will host a National History Day Boot Camp on Thursday, July 29, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. This workshop will show middle and high school teachers how to bring project-based learning and critical thinking skills into their classrooms through the adaptable curriculum of the National History Day program.

The workshop is $10 for Oklahoma Historical Society members and $15 for nonmembers. To register, please click the button below. Registration closes Monday, July 19.

Oklahoma Historical Society

collecting, preserving, and sharing since 1893

Nina Hager, editor