Thomas Gilcrease - Art Collection

Art Collection

The Gilcrease collection of traditional art, Native American art, artifacts and documents was acquired over a lifetime. Gilcrease began to collect oil paintings and other artifacts of the American West in 1922. At a time when few were interested in Native American art or artifacts of the American West, Gilcrease supported a number of Oklahoma Indian artists, including Woody Crumbo, Acee Blue Eagle, and Willard Stone, each of whom created works held in the collection.

In 1943, Gilcrease moved to San Antonio and opened the Museum of the American Indian, also known as the Gilcrease Museum. However, the San Antonio site failed to attract a large number of visitors. In 1947, he purchased the entire collection of the late Phillip Gillette Cole, an avid New York collector. The collection contained twenty-seven bronzes and forty-six paintings by Charles Russell, seventeen bronzes and twelve paintings by Frederic Remington, photographs by Edward Curtis, and documents and correspondence of well known figures in the American West.

Gilcrease hired architect Alexandre Hogue to design a museum to be placed on Oklahoma property he had purchased in 1914. In 1949, he opened the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art on this estate. During the remainder of his life Gilcrease lived in an adjacent home, built of native sandstone. The rock home, dating from approximately 1912, had been extensively remodeled over the years and was surrounded by a garden specializing in plants used by the Indians.

In 1954, fearing that Gilcrease Museum would be sold and leave Tulsa, a small group of citizens organized a bond election. Tulsa's citizens approved, by a 3-to-1 margin, the $2.25 million bond issue which paid Gilcrease's outstanding debts. In response, Gilcrease deeded his entire collection to the City of Tulsa in 1955, and conveyed the museum buildings and grounds to the city in 1958. In addition, Gilcrease committed oil property revenue to Tulsa for museum maintenance until the bond was fully repaid.

After the transfer of the collection, Gilcrease continued to fund archaeological excavations and acquire additional materials. These materials were bequeathed to the museum upon his death on May 6, 1962.