Tulsa is a city in Oklahoma that is located on the Arkansas River. It is famous for its art deco buildings, particularly in the Deco District. The Philcade and Philtower buildings are examples of a 20th-century development boom driven by the local oil industry’s prosperity.
Tulsa is Oklahoma’s second biggest and was once known as the “Oil Capital of the World.” The town, which began in the early twentieth century, has since developed into an urban center that provides mid-western comfort in a cosmopolitan setting. Hundreds of activities and events are available throughout the city’s districts, catering to individuals from all walks of life.
Tulsa’s history dates back to the late 1820s, when the Creek were forced to leave their ancestral lands in Georgia and Alabama. The Lower Creek established near present-day Tulsa after arriving in 1833, making a treaty with the Cherokee and establishing the two tribes’ borders. The boundary was put up along Edison Street in the twenty-first century.
Philbrook Museum of Art is one of Tulsa’s most inviting and engaging cultural institutions, offering a unique trinity of experiences that includes a historic house, a world-class art museum, and 25 acres of lush garden grounds.
On October 25, 1939, the Philbrook Museum of Art opened its doors. In 1990, a 70,000-square-foot wing was added to the old house, transforming it into a contemporary museum complex. The Museum’s status as “the most beautiful spot in Oklahoma” was reinforced in 2004 after a significant garden restoration.
The Tulsa Botanic Garden, located in the Osage Hills and approximately eight miles northwest of downtown Tulsa, is a tranquil haven. The A.R. and Marylouise Tandy Floral Terraces, with over 8,000 plants and cascading art deco water elements, are a must-see. Tulsa Botanic Blooms, a beautiful 100,000+ bulb display, is a great way for the whole family to welcome spring.
Explore the Children’s Discovery Garden, a two-acre wonderland featuring the iconic Spring Giant, spitting animal fountains, carnivorous plants, Sensory Walk, whirligigs, and the Tree Fort, where the oak canopy provides a natural backdrop for imaginative play.
The Tulsa Zoo is an 84-acre wonderland where giants roam and tiny animals call home. Visitors love the zoo’s Lost Kingdom, which is home to some of Asia’s rarest and most elusive animals. In their naturalistic settings with year-round viewing, walk past endangered Malayan tigers and snow leopards, keep an eye on Komodo dragons, and whoop and holler with siamangs.
Bring your trunks and learn about Asian elephants and their larger-than-life adaptations at Lost Kingdom: Elephants. Or, visit the Mary K. Chapman Rhino Reserve on the African Plains, where white rhinos, antelope, warthogs, and grey crowned cranes coexist.
The Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, contains a rich collection of North American art, culture, and history. Gilcrease Museum was founded in 1949 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Thomas Gilcrease, a Muscogee Creek Nation member.
More than 350,000 artifacts are now part of the multidisciplinary collection. The museum houses material culture and archaeology from 12,000 BCE to the twenty-first century, representing hundreds of Indigenous civilizations from North and South America. More than 350 years of American paintings, sculptures, and works on paper are represented in the collection, which includes the greatest public holdings of art from the American West.
The Woody Guthrie Center is a public museum and archive devoted to the life and legacy of American folk artist and singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie. It is situated in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Phil Ochs, a folk singer, composer, and fellow social crusader, has his archives housed in the Center.
The exhibit spans time and genre to tell the stories of enslaved people in America, from spirituals sung by enslaved people in America to the labor movement struggles that Woody Guthrie wrote about in songs like “1913 Massacre,” to the mass movement of music and art that helped to stir action during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, to the ongoing fight for racial justice in America today.
