New History Kid In Town -- RetroMetro OKC

[Doug Loudenback]

It's been in the works for more than a year and, today, Oklahoma City's finest organization dedicated exclusively to Oklahoma City area history makes it's debut as

RetroMetro OKC

The organization's website is http://www.retrometrookc.org.

I've put together a little flash file showcasing the new organization ...



and you can see it and learn more about the organization here: http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2010/07...metro-okc.html.

Our officers are:

• Steve Lackmeyer, president
• Buddy Johnson, vice-president
• Mark Weinmeister, treasurer
• Jack Money, secretary

Our founding members (alphabetically arranged by first name) are:

• A. J. Kirkpatrick, Planner, City of Oklahoma City
• Blair Humphreys, urban designer
• Buddy Johnson, Librarian, Downtown Library
• Bunee Tomlinson, student, filmmaker
• Caroline Cuskey, History professor, Rose State, director of the Atkinson Center
• Catherine Montgomery, Historic Preservation Architect, City of Oklahoma City
• Cody Cooper, Abandoned Oklahoma, cdc designs
• Dean Schirf, retired Greater Oklahoma City Chamber executive, railroad historian
• Doug Loudenback, Attorney, Blogger, author
• Erin Karl, executive director Stockyards City Main Street
• Jack Money, author,The Gazette (stringer)
• John Michael Williams, Attorney
• Justin Tyler Moore, owner of JTMstudios and Abandoned Oklahoma
• Marc Weinmeister, Real Estate, Commercial OKC
• Norman Thompson, history enthusiast, nursing home owner
• Paul Ryckbost, City of Oklahoma City assitant planner
• Pete White, attorney, Ward 4 councilman
• Robert Allison, postcard and photo collector, history columnist
• Steve Lackmeyer, Reporter, The Oklahoman, author

Here's the Press Release dated July 14, 2010

A year-long effort to make Oklahoma City history more accessible goes public Thursday with the unveiling of Retro Metro OKC and the group’s website, www.retrometrookc.org.

Retro Metro OKC is pending 501c3 organization whose goal is to create an online exhibit of thousands of photos and documents relating to our city’s history, culture and heritage. The website debuts with more than 1,200 such materials, and thanks to a cooperative effort with the Oklahoma Historical Society and other area historical organizations, we hope to be adding many more historical Oklahoma City images in the near future.

Retro Metro OKC operates differently from other organizations in that we have no museum, we have no physical collections, and in most instances the materials we display remain in private ownership. In a typical situation our volunteer crews go to a home or business to scan an owner’s collection and the owner participates in the project by sharing information about the photos and documents as they are being scanned. The materials never have to leave an owner’s possession – the owner is simply asked to sign a release that allows for the materials to be displayed online.

The owner of such materials is given a disc of the digitized images and documents – and copies also will be given to the Oklahoma Historical Society and the Metropolitan Library System to ensure they will be preserved for future generations.

Retro Metro OKC’s founding members include historians, authors, planners, a preservation architect, a retired Greater Oklahoma City Chamber executive, a city councilman, a city clerk, business owners, graphic designers and filmmakers. Our common history is Oklahoma City history. Our youngest member is 17; our oldest members are in their 70s.

Over the past year our members have tried to carefully assess the needs and wants of our community. In addition to creating on online display of historic materials, we’re also using our experience, talent and resources to help other history organizations. For us, we check egos at the door. It’s about the history.

Our city’s history is waiting to be revealed and enjoyed. It resides in the photos left to us by our grandparents; it can be found in the postcards, souvenirs and letters gathering dust in the attic, in the stories of our relatives and in the archeology of old places.

Our city’s history can only be truly appreciated and kept intact if it’s found, revealed, shared, enjoyed and passed on to future generations.

Please feel free to visit www.retrometrookc.org and email any comments or questions to info@retrometrookc.org. The site is interactive and allows for visitors to leave comments about photos and documents as they view specific collections. Updates about our activities can be followed via our Twitter account @retrometrookc.

- Steve Lackmeyer, president, Retro Metro OKC

I'm quite pleased to be involved with this organization which, even though in its infancy, has nothing but great expectations and prospects for things to come.

Please check it out and start looking through the more than 1,000 images and videos that are there so far ... thousands more are soon to come!

[MadMonk]

Very nice site! I can see I'll be spending spending lots of time there.

[Midtowner]

If y'all have rights to some of those photos and postcards, why not offer prints for sale? Might help to defray your costs. I'd definitely be interested in vintage courthouse pics (of any local county courthouse) for the office.

[Doug Loudenback]

We do have rights ... at least to publish them ... we have been allowed to scan the original photos, which remain the property of the owner ... we don't keep originals but scan at very high resolution ... with the express agreement that they will be posted at RetroMetro and available for copying and posting elsewhere (with attribution). We just didn't want to get into the selling business, at least not now.

In a Q & A piece that accompanied Steve's press release, one Q & A reads:

Q: Will the images be for sale?

A: We have no such plans at this time. Anyone wishing to obtain a higher resolution version of an image should email info@retrometrookc.org to determine availability of such images (those wanting images belonging to the Oklahoma Historical Society will be directed to the museum, which sells photos for very reasonable prices).

[Steve]

Midtowner, one theme that is pretty strong with our group is the idea of open access. This is certainly not an issue that is decided once and for all - but for now, the q&a pretty much stands.

[Doug Loudenback]

Here's a slightly smaller version of the video at my website (smaller after being converted to You Tube):



Here's another video, this one put together by our fantastic web designer Justin Tyler Moore:




This one's an example of TV ads produced in the 1960s-1980s by the Jon Spence Agency ... I thought it was one of the more clever series of ads ...



And, last, here is a still photo taken from an air balloon in 1910 ... yes, 1910 ... see if you can identify all of the buildings ...

[SoonerGirl26]

Glad to see this up and running!! I know you guys have worked very hard on it and we nostalgia buffs will be blessed by your postings!

~~~