Joseph Bradfield Thoburn

Before he ran the society, Thoburn dug. From 1913 to 1917, while in the University of Oklahoma's history department, he conducted the first scientific excavations into Oklahoma's prehistory: cave-dweller sites in the northeast, basketmaker sites in the northwest and mound-builder sites in Delaware, Le Flore and Kay counties. He joined the Historical Society's staff in 1917 and served until he retired in 1931, helped found and later edited The Chronicles of Oklahoma, and wrote or edited eight books. In Oklahoma City he worked with Anton Classen to found Epworth University, now Oklahoma City University.

What the plaque says

Joseph Bradfield Thoburn 1866 - 1941 Oklahoma's Pioneer Historian Born Bellaire, Ohio, reared and educated in Kansas Secretary Oklahoma Commercial Club Secretary Oklahoma Territorial Board of Agriculture Director Oklahoma Historical Society 38 years Admitted to Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1932 Active in religious, educational and civic works Research work among the Indians and early settlers inspired his authorship of the first school history of Oklahoma in 1908

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum — 4.2 mi
  The outdoor memorial and museum on the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where 168 people were killed at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, shaped by the families and survivors.
• First Americans Museum — 6.1 mi
  The museum of the 39 First American nations in Oklahoma today, on the Oklahoma River, with galleries shaped by each nation, Smithsonian objects brought home and a 90-foot mound.
• Oklahoma Territorial Museum and Carnegie Library — 25 mi
  The 1902 Carnegie Library in Guthrie where Oklahoma's statehood was proclaimed in 1907, saved from demolition in 1972 by adding a museum of the seventeen territorial years beside it.
• The Chisholm — 31 mi
  Kingfisher's farming and ranching museum on the Chisholm Trail's stage branch, with a heritage village and Horizon Hill, the mansion a territorial governor built for a capital that never came.

More markers nearby

• Oklahoma's First Television Station Channel 4 — 2.6 mi
• Delmar Garden — 4.9 mi
• Council Grove — 6.2 mi
• Central State College — 8.8 mi