Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society:Creating the first higher education archives

Jeanne Prince, ArchivistOklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society

Oklahoma History Centerjprince@okhistory.com

405.522.0778

Southwest/Texas/Popular Culture AssociationLibraries, Archives & Museums Area

February 24-28-2009

History of OHEHS

The Friends of Old Central was established in 1991 as a non-profit support group to strengthen and enhance, through private funding, the development and maintenance of the exhibits of the Oklahoma Museum of Higher Education. Housed in Old Central, one of the oldest restored higher educational structures in the state, the museum encompassed the history of more than one hundred forty public and private Oklahoma colleges and universities.

In 1993, Friends of Old Central was renamed The Friends of the Oklahoma Museum of Higher Education. In May 2003 the Friends of the Oklahoma Higher Education changed their name to the Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society.

Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society Mission

To preserve the heritage and history of higher education in Oklahoma and to promote enhanced awareness of higher education's vital role in the social, cultural, economic, and educational development.

The Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society (OHEHS) is dedicated to the preservation of the history of higher education in Oklahoma and promoting a philosophy of higher education heritage.

Sharing common goals, the Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society partnered with the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS), and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education (OSRHE) to develop a number of projects.

With our partners, OHEHS established The Archives of Oklahoma Higher Education.

Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society (OHEHS)

Archives of Oklahoma Higher Education

Established in 1994, the Archives of Oklahoma Higher Education collects and preserves records of permanent value having lasting historical, administrative, or legal significance.

OHEHS Archives is a permanent collection of documents, photographs, and artifacts preserving the stories of the creation, growth, success, and failures of Oklahoma's colleges and universities.

The collection is housed in the Research Division of the Oklahoma History Center and is searchable through the online database courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Division.

Materials Collected in theOHEHS Archives

Records detailing the organization, function, policy, procedure, operation, and transactions from the offices, departments, and staff of Oklahoma institutions of higher education.

Correspondence, papers and memoranda of individuals and institutions.

Minutes, annual, and other reports. Publications and campus newspapers. Yearbooks. Institutional histories. Photographs, film, videotapes, and microfilm. Machine-readable media and corresponding printed documents

such as cassette tapes, floppy disks, and compact discs. Oral histories. Memorabilia and 3-D objects related to institutions of higher

education, Hall of Fame members, and prominent individuals.

Institutional Archives Survey

Purpose:

– To determine the status of Oklahoma’s Higher Education Institutional Archives.

• Who does the institution retain to manage the collections?

• Does the institution have an Archive or Special Collection?

• Estimated size of the holdings.

• Types of materials collected.

• Online access.

Institutional Archives Survey Results

27 of 34 institutions surveyed participated in the survey.– 24 institutions retain an Archivist and Archives/

Special Collections.– Holdings consist of:

• Manuscripts

• Photographs

• Audio/video

• Yearbooks

• Books/institutional histories

• Three dimensional artifacts

• Newspaper/Vertical Files

• Dissertations & Theses

Hudson, Amanda. Summary Report to the Institutional Archives SurveyConducted by the Oklahoma Higher Education Heritage Society. 2008

Higher Education Exhibit

Working with the Oklahoma Historical Society and the museum staff, OHEHS created the Higher Education Exhibit.

OHEHS supports and maintains the Higher Education Exhibit. On a rotating basis, the exhibit tells the story of the institutions and systems of higher education in Oklahoma.

Materials displayed in the exhibit are from the collections and donations made to the Archives of Oklahoma Higher Education.

OHEHS Exhibit

OHEHS Exhibit

OHEHS Exhibit

OHEHS Exhibit

Hall of Fame

Through the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame, OHEHS recognizes outstanding men and women who have excelled in higher education and who have encouraged others to contribute to the economic development and quality of life in Oklahoma.

OHEHS also presents special Awards of Merit to corporations, philanthropists, and other distinguished supporters of Oklahoma higher education.

The Hall of Fame inducts individuals who have been employed by one or more of Oklahoma's institutions of higher education for at least ten years.

Corporations, philanthropists, and other distinguished supporters of Oklahoma higher education need not be employed by an institution, but they must have performed outstanding meritorious service beyond financial contributions to higher education in the state.

Hall of Fame Criteria

Hall of FameInductees

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher was named by the Smithsonian Institution in 1981 as one of 150 black women who changed the course of American history. Sipuel attended segregated Oklahoma public schools and graduated from Langston University with a B. A. degree in 1945. The University of Oklahoma Law School denied her admission in 1946, and the NAACP filed a lawsuit on her behalf with the U. S. Supreme Court that led to her admission. She earned a law degree and a master’s degree at OU, and taught at Langston University until her retirement. Governor David Walters appointed Fisher to the OU board of regents in 1992. She died on October 18, 1995, and was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame in 2001.

Hall of FameInductees

David Ross Boyd was appointed in 1892 as the founding president of the University of Oklahoma. As its first president, he saw the school open with four faculty members, fifty-seven students, and a one-page class schedule. From those humble origins, Boyd led OU to employ a nationally recognized faculty, enroll more than 1,000 students, develop an expanded campus with impressive structures, and offer a greatly expanded curriculum. He left OU in 1908 when politics forced him from office. Today, a Norman street bears his name, as does a university building and a series of OU distinguished professorships. He died in 1936. In 1995, Boyd was inducted posthumously into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.

OHEHS Projects

Enhance Exhibit to include the 10 Oklahoma Colleges and Universities celebrating centennials in 2008-2009

Creation of Internet Clearinghouse for College and University Collections

Institutional Histories Legislation Creating Institutions

Campus Changes Administration & Faculty

Programs Students

Institutional Histories are collected to document the history of Oklahoma’s Colleges and Universities. – Original Documents

– Books and Articles

– Institutional Websites• Cameron University

– http://www.cameron.edu/centennial

– http://www.cameron.edu/centennial/history.html

• Rogers State University– http://www.rsu.edu/centennial/index.asp

Institutional Histories

Legislation

State Colleges & Universities– Public higher education in Oklahoma began shortly after the Land

Run of 1889. – Oklahoma Territory was established by the Organic Act of 1890.

• First Oklahoma Territorial Legislature created three colleges: the University of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, and Central State Normal School.

• The Territorial Legislature subsequently added two additional normal (teacher training) schools and a college for African Americans. Northwestern State Normal in 1897 and Southwestern State Normal in 1901.

• The segregated comprehensive Colored Agricultural and Normal University, was established in 1897.

• A secondary institution, the University Preparatory School at Tonkawa, was created in 1901 to provide high-school graduates for OU.

Encyclopedia of OK History & Culture

Legislation

Land Grant Colleges– “Land-grant colleges were to provide course work

in agricultural practices and engineering as well as military training and liberal arts.”

– Two land-grant colleges were established in Oklahoma Territory . . . Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, Stillwater in 1890 and in 1897 the Colored Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Langston University) in Langston.

Encyclopedia of OK History & Culture

Campus Changes

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Campus Changes

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Students

Linking College & University Archives

Purpose:– A collaboration effort between Oklahoma’s College and

University Archives to create one access point for the resources available to researchers.

• For example, a researcher at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, or at UCLA may need access to Cherokee Indian records of the Cherokee Seminary records held in the Special Collections of Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK.

• This project will make research that had previously been prohibitive available to researchers from their computers.

– www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/statememory/

Examples of collaborations are available from the Library of Congress webpage.– http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/statememory/

• http://www.digitalillinois.org/• http://skyways.lib.ks.us/KSL/trails/• http://rmoa.unm.edu/about.php/

Multi-state Collaborations– Rocky Mountain Online Archive

• http://rmoa.unm.edu/ – Western Trails: an online journey

• http://www.bcr.org/cdp/exhibits/westerntrails/index.html

Internet Resources

Oklahoma Online Resources

Oklahoma Heritage Online– http://www.okheritage.org/check.asp?id=UTop1

OHEHS Training Opportunities

Provide training opportunities to archivists and librarians responsible for collections held at Oklahoma Colleges & Universities.

– Workshop covering the state-mandated “Consolidated General Records Disposition Schedule for Colleges and Universities” (Jan. 22, 2009).

QUESTIONS?