William Thomas Gilcrease
William Thomas Gilcrease was a prominent figure born into the Creek Nation in Louisiana, who later moved to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, with his family. Growing up, he received a land allotment of 160 acres and pursued education, mainly attending Bacone Indian College and later Emporia State College, although he was largely self-educated. In 1922, Gilcrease founded the Gilcrease Oil Company and developed a deep interest in Native American culture, art, and history, which shaped his lifelong pursuits. He established the Gilcrease Foundation in 1942 with the aim of preserving and showcasing Native American art and historical records. The foundation led to the creation of the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, which opened in 1949 and was fully deeded to the city in 1958. Today, the Gilcrease Museum stands as one of the largest collections of Western art and artifacts related to North American indigenous peoples, reflecting Gilcrease's enduring legacy and passion for preserving cultural heritage.
William Thomas Gilcrease
- Born: February 8, 1890
- Birthplace: Robeline, Louisiana
- Died: May 6, 1962
- Place of death: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Category: Art collector, oilman, civic leader
Tribal affiliation: Creek
Significance: Gilcrease devoted his life to American Indian art and history, gathering a large collection of artifacts, documents, and artwork
Born into the Creek Nation in Louisiana, Thomas Gilcrease moved with his family to Indian Territory as a young boy. Each member of his family received 160 acres of tribally allotted land before Oklahoma was granted statehood. Gilcrease’s Indian land allotment was located south of modern Glenpool, Oklahoma’s first major oil-producing field. He attended Bacone Indian College at Muskogee by using royalty money. He later transferred to Emporia State College in Emporia, Kansas. Gilcrease, however, was mostly self-educated; his early formal education consisted primarily of intermittent attendance at rural schools in Louisiana and Indian Territory.
In 1922, he organized the Gilcrease Oil Company, later moving to San Antonio, Texas. He had a long-term fascination with learning about, understanding, and collecting Native American art, artifacts, and literature. In the process of satisfying his interest in Native Americans, he also developed a preoccupation with the general collecting of historical Americana.
In 1942, he established the Tulsa-based Gilcrease Foundation, whose corporate charter was “to maintain an art gallery, museum, and library devoted to the preservation for public use and enjoyment the artistic, cultural and historical records of the American Indian.” In 1949, a museum was opened and, in 1958, deeded in its totality to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Thomas Gilcrease devoted most of his adult life to his love of art and Indian people. Today the Gilcrease Museum is one of the world’s largest repositories of Western art, artifacts, and book collections devoted to North American indigenous peoples.