A 1916 Look At Oklahoma History

Wikpedia: C. D. Foster. Foster's Comic History of Oklahoma. Oklahoma City: The Publisher's Press, 1916, page 69.

A cartoonist's rendering of Theodore Roosevelt's initial reaction to the Oklahoma Constitution.

While I was reading some information about Oklahoma's Constitution on Wikpedia, I found the above cartoon about President Theodore Roosevelt. Knowing there was some history between President Theodore Roosevelt and early state leaders, I went looking for references regarding this cartoon. What I found was a complete copy of the book the cartoon came from at Archive.org.

The book Foster's Comic History of Oklahoma was written by C. D. Foster with illustrations by Merle St. Leon. It was published by The Publishers Press in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1916. It's a humorous look at Oklahoma’s history from the point of view of Oklahoma's first decade.

I probably should add this disclaimer. Please keep in mind this book was written 1916 and the illustrations and wording reflect that time. The artist used racial caricatures in some of his cartoons that some may find offensive in this day and age.

Besides being able to read the entire book online, Archive.org has provided the publication several different formats including PDF, EPUB, and Kindle. So you can download it and upload it to the reader of your choice. Besides adding it to my iPhone’s iBook (I’m about half way through it at the time I’m posting this.), I went ahead and printed the out the 150 page document so I can share it with a few people.

I hadn't thought of digging through Archive.org for old history books until I stumbled upon this one illustration at Wikipeida. Now I'm going to have to make some time to dig through their archives to see what else of Oklahoma history is in there.