Admission by voluntary contributions.
Nine galleries. Three theaters. Interactive television.
Special children's museum.
The 16,652 square-foot, nine-gallery museum was built of fossilized limestone quarried nearby. Opened in 1938, the main building was financed by a $200,000 appropriation by the Oklahoma Legislature. The east wing was added in 1982 using additional legislative appropriations. During the 1990-95 period, the entire museum was remodeled with $3 million of private and public funds.
The museum frames the family tomb in the sunken garden. Spread across the southern horizon is the Tiawah Valley. The 20-acre museum grounds, purchased by Will Rogers in 1911 for $500 an acre, was his planned retirement home site. Following his untimely death, the land was donated by his widow and children along with great parts of the collection.
This 2,400 square foot library serves as offices for the staff of the Will Rogers Memorial. Research space also is available for scholars and writers. Included in the library are more than 2,000 volumes by, about or referencing Will Rogers in addition to texts on Indians, vaudeville, early motion pictures and the 1879-1935 era.
The carefully protected archives include 15,000 photographs, thousands of original manuscripts, private letters, contracts and personal papers. Housed in a sub-terrain vault served by the elevator at the south end of this gallery, the vault has special humidity-temperature controls and is encircled by the children's museum area.
Will
Rogers Memorial Commission
James L. Hartz, Chairman
Steven W. Turnbo, Vice-Chairman
Paul H. Johnson
Stephen R. Pazzo, Jr.
James K. Rogers
D. R. Deacon Turner, II
Cara Cowan Watts
Will
Rogers Memorial Museums
Steven K. Gragert, Director