Oklahoma Historical Society

United States Oklahoma  Archives and Libraries  



The Oklahoma Historical Society has been collecting, preserving, and sharing the history of Oklahoma and its people since 1893, before statehood in 1907. This is the major resource for Oklahoma genealogy. They offer much information online – or at least there is an online index and you can request the actual records, for example from their indexed vertical files.

Newspapers
The OHS Gateway provides free access to 189,095 issues and 967,391 pages of historical newspaper content. See the Gateway.

Territorial Records
The Oklahoma Historical Society has numerous records from the territorial period, including these:


 * 1890 Oklahoma Territorial Census
 * First Directory of Oklahoma Territory

To see other territorial records and instructions for finding more, such as marriage records, click here.

Native American Records
Many resources are available from OHS, including these:


 * Seminole Rolls
 * Dawes 1896 Applications
 * Dawes Final Rolls
 * Township plats for Creek Nation
 * Indian Pioneer Histories
 * Finding Your American Indian Ancestors

Genealogy
A variety of records are available online, including some land records, county records, school records, divorce records, directories, funeral home records, and military records are available here. Besides this goldmine of records, they also have the following:


 * Manuscript Collection 1800-present (bulk 1890-1945)
 * Audio and Oral Histories The Oral History Collection includes approximately 3,000 recorded interviews pertaining to a wide range of Oklahoma topics. The interviews date from 1956 to the present day.
 * Newspaper Archives - Microfilm collection is separate from the Gateway cited above. The newspaper collection currently consists of over 4,400 titles on approximately 33,000 reels of microfilm (of which 28,000 reels were produced in-house.) OHS has the oldest, largest, and most complete collection of newspapers available within the State.
 * Vertical Files These cover a variety of subjects including towns and counties in Oklahoma, various events, American Indian tribes and biographical files and some specific families. Files may contain newspaper clippings, WPA writings, pamphlets, brochures, programs and fliers.
 * Digital Prairie Documents and Images from the Oklahoma Dept.of Libraries

Photographs
OHS began collecting photographs in 1893, and today there are an estimated 9 million images in the photographic archives collections. To see their photo search instructions, click here. To learn more about the photo collection as well as prices for ordering copies, click here.

Oklahoma History and Culture
They also publish the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, a two volume work. The online version is http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/

Oklahoma History Center 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive Oklahoma City, OK 73105 405-521-2491 Oklahoma Historical Society