We had the baby boom. And then everybody got a brandnew car. Cars were made again and we had to show or family where we trained at the great lakes or down in oklahoma or out in texas or in california, and people took to the road. And the wartime blended right into peacetime into the great long heyday of route 66. The late 40s, throughout the 50s, 60s, even into the 70s. Even after president eisenhower in 1956 signed actually the death warrant for the road, the interstate highway act which led to the creation of five interstate highways that tried to take route 66s place from chicago to santa monica. But it wasnt until the mid 1980s that the last shields went down. Thats when the decertification was complete. The federal shields were down. Now we had the interstates, 55 and 44 and 40 and 15 and 10. And route 66 went into a bit of a limbo. Its so many things that is the road is so many things. Much more than just the physical road itself. For many people its not for many people. Its nostalgia, traveling and a lot of yucks and buying souvenirs. And thats fun. Whatever it takes. But for many people its a reminder that progress is good. I mean route 66 could no longer handle the traffic. But along with progress you give some things up. I think its important to remember that the official title of our museum is the Thomas Gilcrease institute of American History and art. And what he was doing in his collecting in fine arts through archival material, through the items of culture is to be able to amass a collection that would tell the story of the americas, not just what becomes United States of america, but material from Northern Canada what today is alaska down through canada. What does become the United States central america. And south america. So we can speak to the history of all of the americas through these different components of the collection. His name was Thomas Gilcrease. He was born in 1890 in louisiana. But as an infant his family relocated to indian territory, the creek nation of indian territory because his mother was a Quarter Creek indian. One of the acts of congress that brought the gilcrease family from louisiana to the creek nation of indian territory was the daus act. The daus act broke up the Tribal Holdings of indian land. The creek nation as a child of a mother who was a Quarter Creek indian Thomas Gilcrease received an allotment and this allotment ended up sitting on top of one of the most productive oil fields in American History at the time, the glen pool of oil about 20 miles south of tulsa. So by the time Thomas Gilcrease is a young man, 20 21 years old, hes a millionaire circa 1910. Whats happening in the United States at the time is the automobile is becoming the primary means of transportation. What do you need for an automobile . You need lots of Petroleum Products and the oil well that gilcrease was accumulating through that allotment and then his Business Activities as a young man produced the well that allowed him to become the collector that he will become to collect the art, the archaeological material in the collection and the archival material. I think in many regards the collection comes out of hi native american ancestry. That will be a driving force in his collecting mission and vision. And then i think he was also a very curious fellow. He was always wanting to know more while he had a fairly limited formal education he was a lifelong learner. We would use that term today. Continually educating himself about the history of the americas. Were now in our on Common Ground exhibit. This is an exhibit from our Permanent Collection of items that speak to what we as americans have in common. Despite all of our differences, whether theyre race, religious, ethnic, we have so many things in common and this first gallery in a suite of ten galleries speaks to the land. That obviously what we all have in common is the land of the United States that we inhabit, that we live upon. And this first gallery shows the land in many cases before humans have arrived and has these magnificent landscapes of the land, of the animals that were on the land, like the bison, the american bison. And then one of our favorite works in the collection that is part of any visit is thomas more rans falls on the snake river painted in 1900. Now the Gilcrease Museum has the largest collection of moran painting, not only the paintings and water colors but also his notes. In fact we have his journals where he kept records of the prices he was paid for these different works. But sha shone any falls is a favorite of not only the local audiences here in tulsa oklahoma, the United States when Henry Kissinger has been in town, he like to come and sit in front of this work and absorb its beauty. It really is a work that speak to the sub lime of nature. The awe inspiring beauty of nature. And in this case a terrible sublime. The work can be awe inspiring in beauty but also terrifying. In this case the water fall, know as the niagra of the west. Were in our focus on favorites exhibit. These pieces, whether theyre fine art, ar tlo pa logical represent the master works in the collection. I would like to point out that part oufr collection thats overlooked, its this collection. I mean objects of human culture that help us understand people of the americas that have lived here for thousands of years before europeans ever set foot into what they thought was a new world, which in fact was a very old world. In the case to my right we have objects from this part of the United States. We have items from the mississippi culture which was represented here in oklahoma by one of the most significant archaeological sites in all of north america, the spiral mounds. And these would be the pottery pieces that you see the bowls, the double legged vase. Very sophisticated knowledge of pottery. Theyre decorated with images that speaks to what was important for this culture. Then my favorite piece since were in the focus on favorites gallery is this very small beaver pipe. This piece is about 2,000 years old. But look at the craftsmanship of this, the carving, the exquisite detail, in my mind, the abstraction of the beaver down to its essential components. The eyes of the beaver are insert with river pearls from the Mississippi River drainage. The teeth are actually believe teeth that have been carved down and set into this piece of stone to create a very realistic depiction of a beaver. But again, this was a ceremonial pipe. And when this was used in ceremony, you can see the small hole in the very front lower portion of this, thats where the smoking stem would be inserted. So when a man was smoking this in ceremony, he is looking right at this very angry beaver. So a wonderful beautiful piece. In fact this is considered the best example of this woodlands culture here in Gilcrease Museum. Were still in our focus on favorites exhibit. Were in a room i like to call the history room because many of the objects in here speak to our history, both as what would become the United States but also the history of the americas beginning with contact with europeans. And this document to my right is a great example of this. This is a letter composed, dictated by columbus the son of Christopher Columbus in 1520. And in this letter columbus is bringing up again a subject that he had brought up in an earlier letter that we have of 1512 that the spanish need to treat the indians better. Theyve introduced disease among them, theyve inslaved them and hes asked that they no longer be enslaved that they be treated better, that they be christianized. That they have a soul and could be saved through christianity. But then goes on to say if we christianize them with can no longer enslave them which would create a labor problem. So this letter columbus asked king charles iv of spain for permission to begin the importation of african slaves. The first known mention of african slaves being brought into the americas. So our collection can tell the story of contact, european contact with native people but very quickly our story will include the continent of africa and africans being brought into the americas through documents like this. This is one of my favorite pieces. I usually get goosebumps when i read this. The date line is cambridge 1829, 17175. So this would be the boston area, 177537 and it reads, this may certify that the bearer mr. Paul revere, is messenger to the committee of safety and that all dispatch and assistance be given him in all instances that the triumph of the colony may be facilitated signed by joseph warren. That was paul reveres pass to move about the minute men lines in the cambridge boston area. This pass was written about ten days of the bottle of concord and lexington, the shots heard round the world that will begin, officially begin i guess, the american revolution. Well then our collection gets even better because i think our most prized possession is the only known surviving handwritten copy of the declaration of independence. We know that this was created in philadelphia and then in early 1777 franklin will use tight communicate to the court of frederic the great of push sha exactly whats happening back here in this new United States. We have in essence the cover letter that went with this where franklin is saying we the United States of america have just declared our independence from great brit on the. Here is our declaration of that independence and the reasons for our formation as a new nation. For many of our guests, wanting to see examples from the collection that speak to our history as a nation and particularly the revolutionary period. We have this wonderful painting depicting George Washington and lay fayette at the battle of brandy wine by john vanderling. This is a painting that depicting washington in a classical heroic pose with the french aris cat lay fayette that had come inspired by the rev revolution revolution, had come to the american cause and in fact became like a surrogate son to George Washington. And you see that in this wonderful depiction of the brandy wine battle which by the way was an american defeat but never a defeat where washington would lose his army. And he would go on later to win independence. We often think of George Washington as father of the nation both as a military leader and then later as president of the United States. Not only do we have this wonderful painting of the battle of brandy wine with washington and lafayette, were so fortunate to have the two busts of washington and lafayette in the collection. Now while the painting was done after the fact in the 1820s, both of these busts of washington and lafayette were done from life that the great french sculpture came to the United States after the revolution and did castings of washington from life and then a few years later, back in france did this magnificent sculpture of lafayette. In fact many french art historians consider this the best work that he ever did. And amazingly, Thomas Gilcrease was able to acquire this bust of lafayette from the lafayette family. Later in Thomas Gilcreases collecting experience, he came in contact with the artist of the tause school of art in new mexico. And one of my favorites is this wonderful work of a hunt there at the pube lo area. The title of the work is too old for the rabbit hunt. And we see this older pa web lo indian in the foreground looking wisfully at the young men on horseback as theyre hunting. This is a work for me that transcends time and culture that all of us at some point in our lives will become too old to become the things we could do in our youth that we love to do. And we see that here in the old man looking at his past. And i often wonder if this is an al gore call work that what hes seeing is actually a dream of his past. But in any case, a wonderful work representing the school the artist has used the mountains in the background to signify the almost timeless quality of the landscape of new mexico. And these indian people that have lived there long before europeans had come in contact, these areas of new mexico and arizona are the oldest, longest lived areas continue usually lived areas of