News and Events

Calendar of Events - 2021

Event:	Historical Society Meeting
Date:	First Wednesday of every month (except Jul/Aug)
	2021 meeting dates: Jan 6th, Feb 3rd, Mar 3rd, Apr 6th, May 5th, Jun 2nd, Sep 1st, Oct 6th, Nov 3rd, Dec 1st
Time:	10:00 a.m.
Location:	Lee/Chamber of Commerce Building located in downtown Wilson at
	1108 US Highway 70A (i.e. Main Street).

Special Events - 2021

Event:	Honoring Lance Straughn with the Jim Miller Artistic and Cultural Award
Date:	September 18th
Time:	7:00 p.m.
Location:	Wilson Chamber of Commerce building
Details:	Dinner is $20 - choice of Chicken or Steak
	RSVP (with dinner choice) by August 7th to:
	Wilson Historical Museum
	1270 8th St.
	Wilson, OK 73463

Recent Events

History of Early Wilson
Carole Gandy Pinches’ long-awaited history of early Wilson, entitled Wilson, Oklahoma 1913-1939: Anatomy of an Oil Boom Town, was published in November 2019. This high quality, 8 ½” x 11” leather bound book was written after meticulous research covering all Wilson newspapers from Wilson’s founding through 1939. In addition, numerous other sources were employed in order to make this “the” definitive history of early Wilson. The 640-page book contains over 530 pictures and illustrations and the over 8,000 individuals mentioned in the book are contained in the comprehensive index. In addition to Wilson, the book covers Dillard, Rexroat and the oil field camps north of Wilson, and Blackjack, Board Tree, Hewitt, Keller, Orr, Post Oak, Simon, Wheeler and Oil City, and Zaneis. The book is for sale in the Museum store.

Oral History Project
Our oral history project is finally moving forward after a long year of being quarantined due to Covid-19. The purpose of the oral history is to provide more detailed information about the people who live(d) in Wilson and the region. We are now scheduling appointment for interviews and would like to invite all senior citizens from Wilson and the immediate region to contact us if you would like to participate. The interview is very casual. We ask basic biographical information with only one interviewer and a small camera. In addition, you are invited to provide more detail, stories from the past, and/or other information you care to share that pertains to Wilson’s and the region’s history. You will receive a copy of the interview on a thumb drive to share with your family. To schedule an oral history appointment please call or text Denise Holt at (580) 465-8999.

What's Happening at the Museum

New Displays
New displays include: the Wilson post office; the Wilson Rotary club; some of the late Jim Miller’s sculptures along with Dean Alexander and Lonnie Rooney displays, a workday in the kitchen display, and a Steele Grocery Store display.

Internet Availability
After considering it for a number of years, the Museum now has Internet access. This creates additional opportunities for genealogical and other research. In addition, present-day Wilson Post-Democrats’ can be accessed digitally.

Further accessioning
We now have all of our pictures digitally scanned and saved in PastPerfect, the museum software employed at the Museum. In addition, most of the other items and objects that have been donated to the Museum over the years have also been accessioned.

Upgrading PastPerfect
In early 2021 the Society received a grant from the Jerome Westheimer Family Foundation to allow us to upgrade the museum software, PastPerfect. We are in the process of moving to a new version of PastPerfect that will allow access via the Internet. In addition, we are exploring the feasibility of having many of the Museum’s pictures available for on-line viewing.

2020 annual celebration
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic we did not hold an annual celebration in 2020, but look forward to having one in November 2021.

Community Service Awards
The Wilson Historical Museum presented two community service awards in the spring of 2020 to graduating high school students, Secret Wilkins and Carson Fulton. In order to receive the awards they performed community service and interviewed and wrote a history of a current or former Wilsonite. Each received $500 to be used for further education or other development. For all high school seniors in Wilson who are interested in competing for the award in 2022, please contact your high school counselor in May 2021, or if you are home schooled call the Museum and leave a message at (580) 668-2505.