The Gateway to Oklahoma History couldn't have been possible without generous support from partners.

Oklahoma Press Association

The Oklahoma Press Association (OPA) and the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) began a partnership in 1893 to preserve Oklahoma's newspapers for future generations.  Collecting and preserving Oklahoma's newspapers on microfilm is an institutional mission of the OHS today as it has been for more than 65 years.  Through the partnership with the members of the OPA, 93% of all Oklahoma newspapers ever published are preserved on microfilm at the OHS located at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City.  The newspaper collection currently consists of over 4,400 titles on approximately 35,000 reels of microfilm. 

In 2010, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation awarded the OHS a grant to digitize the public domain newspapers in the collection. The goal of the project is to "enhance dramatically the ability of reporters, journalism students and professors, other teachers and students, historians, and the general public to do research in every newspaper that was published from 1844 through 1923 in the area that now is Oklahoma."  This is being accomplished through the digitization of approximately five million pages of newspapers from the microfilm master reels. 

"OPA has been a supporter of the OHS since its inception, and supported the effort to secure this public domain newspaper digitization grant. To see the grant come to fruition and make these historically valuable newspapers available is an exciting development," said Mark Thomas, Executive Vice President of the Oklahoma Press Association.  "I expect newspapers will be among the first and most frequent users of these old pages.  Hopefully, while people are viewing these early day newspapers, they will also remember the value of having a local newspaper that records local events for generations that follow us."

The OHS and the OPA want to thank all of the publishers, past and present, who have helped to make this project possible.  We look forward toward continuing our partnership with the members of the OPA, as together we continue to preserve the newspapers of the state of Oklahoma.

Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation

In 2009 the foundation provided funding for The Gateway to Oklahoma History, staff, and the technology to digitize pre-1923 public domain newspapers. These 5 million pages of newspapers will form the core of The Gateway's digital repository.

National Endowment for the Humanities

Three "We the People" grants were awarded to the Oklahoma Historical Society and the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries for the National Digital Newspaper Program "Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers." These awards funded the digitization of Oklahoma newspapers, with UNT serving as technical adviser.

Chickasaw Nation

The Chickasaw Nation provided funding in 2007 for staff and technology that helped establish digitization initiatives in the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Division. The technology included a microfilm scanner, which has been used to produce much of the content for The Gateway.