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great loss to Tulsa. The Gilcrease
collection of paintings and sculp
ture contained the most complete
aggregate of George Catlin’s work.
Catlin was the first painter in
what is now Oklahoma. Two hun
dred and fifty other American
artists were represented in the
Gilcrease collection, incl u d i n g
superb examples of Remington,
Russell, Homer, Henri, Sully and
Whistler. Valuable Americana such
as a copy of the original commis
sion to Paul Revere authorizing
the famous ride of 1775 would be
lost to Tulsans. The objects and
museum were appraised at $6,500,-
600 and Gilcrease was ready to
assign oil lands he held as a sus
taining allowance toward mainten
ance of the museum. Gilcrease’s
museum sits on top of a high hill
overlooking the fairy-like skyline
of Tulsa, “The only picture,” Gil
crease used to say, “that cost me
nothing.” The museum has been
called “The Louvre of the Western
Plains.”
In indignation, Aaronson asks,
“Could we afford to lose this prec
ious institution?” He regarded the
potential moving to Claremore as
a one man catastrophe. He immed
iately called a meeting of influ
ential people to establish a “Save
Gilcrease Museum for Tulsa Com
mittee” and plans were made to
float a municipal bond issue for
$2,250,000. After one of the early
meetings, Victor Barnette, manag
ing editor of the Tulsa Tribune
sent Aaronson a note: “Alfred,
you did a wonderfully pleasant
restrained job today.”
The success of the bond issue
was a public tribute to Alfred
Aaronson. The editorials in both
Tulsa papers acknowledged this,
for here is a man, quite wonder
fully pleasant, restrained, modest,
warm-hearted, unselfish, whose
devotion saved a museum for his
city. The Gilcrease campaign was,
according to the Tulsa Tribune,
“the outstanding example of civic
unity of 1954.”
In 1957, three years after what
he calls “the Gilcrease experience,”
Aaronson retired from active par
ticipation in several businesses he
helped spearhead, and began to
devote fulltime to improvement of
the cultural and human relations
aspects of his city.
Alfred Aaronson was 20 when
he came to Tulsa in 1913. Born in
New York, he had attended public
schools there and Townsend-Har-
ris Hall of the City College of
New York. He became one of the
founders of the Mid-Co. Petroleum
Corp. and of Tuloma Oil Co.
With the pressing need for a new
central library in Tulsa and new
branch libraries in outlying dis
tricts, Aaronson began to study the
needs for a vastly improved libra
ry system. Since his activity com
menced, small branch libraries
have sprung up like fresh mush
rooms in every outlying corner of
the community. In them, art ex-
The Southern Israelite
hibits are weekly affairs, often in
winter with a fire in the open
fireplace and punch and cookies
being served to all comers. The
projected new library will be part
of a civic center now being built.
In connection with this, Aaron-
son’s newest interest, that of the
Tulsa Historical Society, has found
a new home.
As a precaution against destruc
tion of valuable artifacts, books,
magazines, newspapers and records
of early Indian Territory days, of
the life and culture of the Ameri
can Indian tribes and of Tulsa it
self, Aaronson has urged that a
Tulsa Historical Society be found
ed. People in Tulsa were readily
interested, and acknowledged that
some items that look like waste-
paper today become invaluable to
morrow. Lucia Ferguson, a news
paper woman who was a close
friend of the Aaronson’s before her
death, had devoted the whole third
floor of her great home to a col
lection of materials about early
Oklahoma history. “What will hap
pen to these materials?” asks
Aaronson with concern.
The answer comes from the new
library which will have a room
for housing these artifacts and
historical materials. And with
Aaronson’s drive, there is always
the possibility in the future that
the Historical Society will have a
home of its own. Aaronson joking
ly reports that when he called the
first meeting of the Historical po
tential, the editor of the Tulsa
Tribune sent a reporter with the
warning, “Don’t let that guy
Aaronson float a bond issue to
build a ten-story building to house
that damn collection!”
In a recent Sunday Tulsa World,
the religion editor, Beth Macklin,
wrote a personality profile about
Alfred Aaronson which aroused
the warmest congratulatory com
ments in the community and
brought a flood of mail and clip
pings to the Aaronson home.
Millicent and Alfred Aaronson
speak with pride and pleasure of
their two daughters. Their home,
arranged with upstairs bedrooms,
was built especially so that the
families could visit without up
setting the grandparent’s routine.
The younger daughter, Alice, is
married to Rabbi Dov Zlotnick, in
structor of Talmud in the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America.
They live in New York. Grace, the
older daughter, from whom I have
quoted, is an author and poet in
her own right. The Jewish Publi
cation Society of America, in 1958,
published her Midrash on Ruth,
“Come Under the Wings,” a book
of exquisite poetry. In it she has
paraphased the morning prayer,
Modi Ani, and summed up a
whole family’s philosophy:
“My God is this world’s King:
Before aught else He was:
He was my root and cause
And now my flowering:
My God is this world's King"
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