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Leave your mark on the Oklahoma History Center
Monogrammed Bricks Remain Available
Honor your family name, loved ones, or colleagues, organizations, or special events by purchasing a monogrammed brick to be placed in one of the brick patios on the grounds of the Oklahoma History Center. 54 bricks remain available for
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photo by Terry Zinn |
monograming at a cost of $35 each.
Three lines with fourteen spaces in each line are available for wording on the bricks. Blank spaces between words count against the fourteen available spaces.
For additional information and to order your brick or bricks, please contact Paul Lambert at 405-522-5217 or plambert@okhistory.org (please note that this email address has been corrected from the previous article). |
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Fort Washita Civil War Reenactment
September 23-24, 2011
Friday the 23rd will be a special school day for students. Friday hours are 9am to 2pm.
On Saturday join us from 9am to 4pm for more activities. At 11a.m. we will reenact the surrender of the fort in April, 1861 to Confederate forces. At 1:30pm there will be a battle reenactment.
Admission is only $5 per car.
Reenactor Registration
Reenactors register online now.
For more information, please contact Fort Washita at (580)924-6502. |
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Acid, Bomb Squads and First Aid Kits: All in a Day's Work with Museum Collections!
June 15th, 2011
by Karen Whitecotton, Curator of Collections
Ever heard of Picric acid? Don't worry, you're not alone. Most people have never heard of it, and neither had I until a few days ago. It's a highly explosive chemical compound (the forerunner to TNT) that has been around for a couple of centuries and has been used primarily as munitions and fireworks.
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Bomb squad at the OHC |
Picric acid is actually a liquid that over time dries out and crystalizes. When it crystalizes it becomes highly unstable and VERY sensitive to shock and therefore handling it becomes dangerous.It also leaves a distinct bright yellow powdery residue that is easy to spot.
Why on earth would a museum have explosive chemicals, like picric acid in their collections? Simple answer- they don't know about it. We sure didn't! ...read more of the story
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The Flying Vigilante
Michael J. Hightower, PhD
Principal Researcher, Oklahoma
Bank and Commerce History Project
For all its unpleasantness, the Great Recession is no match for the Great Depression. Haunted by privation, many chose bank robbery as the most likely route to riches, leaving bankers scrambling to protect their resources. Target-hardening technologies provided some protection in the form of safes and vaults, but many banks remained vulnerable to pillaging.
In November 1934, an outraged Hugh Zimmerman took to the skies after the First National Bank of Okeene was robbed "by three desperate yeggs." Moments after hearing the news, Zimmerman cranked up his homemade "Model T sky-wagon" and swooped across the plains until he spotted the getaway car. "As soon as he sighted the car," ran one breathless account, "he zoomed down within a few feet of it to see if he were following the right prey, and was rewarded by seeing the robbers poke their heads out the car windows and point guns at him."
Undaunted, the flying vigilante set his plane down near a filling station and told an attendant to alert the authorities. A high-speed chase on the ground and surveillance from the air ensued until Zimmerman ran out of gas. Down below, the robbers evaded capture by pushing their car across a dry creek, slicing through a wire fence, and escaping on another highway. The Oklahoma Banker added its voice to a chorus of tribute for the aviator-turned-lawman: "Too much praise cannot be given Hugh Zimmerman for the courage and cool nerve he exercised in volunteering to follow these robbers and if the gasoline had not given out he could have kept them in sight until the officers effected a capture."
To learn how you can participate in the Oklahoma Bank and Commerce History Project, contact Michael by phone at (434) 249-6043 or by email at mhightower@okhistory.org.
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