Choctaw-Nicoma Park Schools Museum

11/28/2024

This year we are thankful that earlier this month the Choctaw Nicoma Park Schools Museum was incorporated with the Secretary of State of Oklahoma as a not-for-profit institution. There is still much to be done in addition to what has been accomplished but we anticipate completion by early next year when permanent changes will take place. Happy Thanksgiving!

08/21/2024

Even though the museum seems to have been quiet this past few months, much has been happening in the background. Additions to the collection have been steadily arriving (thank you) and the museum’s strategy has been slowly and carefully evolving. This year has seen the close bond between the Choctaw Alumni Association and the Choctaw-Nicoma Park Schools Museum strengthened after the Pandemic subsided and work at the museum has resumed.

CAA installed its incoming board members and CNPSM gained its official liaison officer, Dr. Jim McCharen, as an ex-officio member of the board. Dr. McCharen is now the museum’s liaison to the CAA, the CNP School Administration, the CNP School Board and more, filling a prominent and much-needed position. At the beginning of the Pandemic, the museum went into survival mode in an attempt to deal with pressing organizational matters, the most important of which was the creation and realization of a cataloging system, something at the heart of every museum in existence and without which a museum cannot function.

For the past 33 years I have been documenting museums in my travels; making a record of both the contents of their collections and the manner in which they are displayed. Since 2000 I have also made notes of their use of accession numbers. Dr. McCharen has been photographing the museums he visits as well, documenting the characteristics that interested him. We stay in contact with each other and meet regularly to discuss facets of CNPSM, existing areas of interest and emerging domains of potential exhibits. As a result, two new eventual archives have come forth with two additional topics of interest developing.

At the beginning of this year Dr. McCharen’s direct association with the CAA defined essential areas of cooperation. Additionally, the passage of a recent CNP District Bond Issue will give us a new, built-for-purpose, permanent home in the refurbished and expanded Dr Jim McCharen Student Activity Center, the only logical home for the museum, in the building named for the museum’s impresario. We are most grateful to the patrons of the Choctaw-Nicoma Park School District for their support of the bond election. They are much of whom and what help CNP schools achieve greatness.

If you haven’t already, we urge you to visit the museum in its temporary location of three adjoining galleries in the CNP Schools Administration building. Inside you will see displayed a large array from the collection according to the decade from which they came. There are thirteen museum display cases, ten of which are dedicated to the first one hundred years of the C-NP Independent School District. Three additional cases in the north corridor gallery are used to explore special themed categorical displays. The cases in the south hallway gallery display items from 2000 to the present while the extra space is used to develop future permanent display categories.

The museum acknowledges and thanks the Choctaw Alumni Association for its continuing support. The fundraising project of the 2023 annual reunion fundraiser added nearly $3,600 to the museum’s fund. As we await the construction of the new museum, we will continue working diligently in the background as we determine and document the strategy of the Choctaw-Nicoma Park Schools Museum. In the meantime we will carry on with gratefully receiving additions to the collection then storing them securely and safely like the treasures they are.

Each time Dr. McCharen or I sit down to research a specific time in the history of CNP Schools one of us discovers a surprise and they’re always good. Our first surprise wasn’t so good. We learned that after CHS students moved into the present CHS buildings workmen at the old location went in and threw away almost everything they found. Fortunately some alumni recovered items before they were lost forever; and a few of those rescued items are now a part of our collection. There will be periodic updates to our page as we push on. We are an open-ended entity, in other words our work at CNPSM will never stop and that’s just how we want it to be. Thank you again for hours of volunteer work, the treasures in our collections and pecuniary contributions whether given individually or through alumni fund-raising.

Information on how you can support the museum can be found at choctawalumni.org (https://choctawalumni.org/history/choctaw-nicoma-park-schools-museum/)

a.t.
(CHS’65)

Choctaw-Nicoma Park Schools Museum   The C-NP Schools Museum exists to preserve, curate and exhibit items from our rich and storied past. The CAA and its informal predecessor were instrumental in its formation and operational implementation. The CAA will continue to provide financial and volunteer ...

04/26/2023

Shelby visits CNPSM

In early June 2022, the Choctaw-Nicoma Park Schools Museum had a VIP visitor, Ms Shelby Nivatonant, who saw the museum collection for her first time. You might remember that it was Shelby who collaborated with Andrew Thompson to create a catalog system for the museum’s already extensive archives.The catalog project was also the Capstone Project for her Master’s Degree in Library Science from the University of Oklahoma. Specifically the capstone was for the class “Organization of Information” and titled “Choctaw High School Archives”. Additionally the proposal was approved by Dr Jim McCharen, the senior museum official. Shelby was impressed at the size and diversity of collections at CNPSM which ruled out every other cataloging system that either of us had explored. As she wrote, “There was no system in place at CHS, and I based this system heavily on The Getty Vocabularies, specifically the Cultural Objects Name Authority (CONA).”

Her offer to design the system for both museum and Capstone was made on March 4th, 2020. Plans were made to visit the museum the following week to examine the collection. Unfortunately the Covid pandemic forced everything to shut down; but fortunately they were able to use Andrew’s photos and promotional videos of the collection to get started. Communication was via text messages, email and FaceTime calls. After much work on Shelby’s part a final draft was ready for examination by her professor and Andrew and McCharen saw the project for the first time. Once approved, the draft was refined and finished. Andrew has been testing the protocols set forth in Ms. Nivatonant’s project and the overall protocol works.

The cataloging system will work in the present temporary museum facility and in the permanent facility. Any adjustments to nomenclature will be easily made and still remain workable. Next, the CNPSM Docents will return to work in the museum.

After graduation from OU Shelby and her husband moved to Laramie, Wyoming where she now attends Law School and works in the Law Library at the University of Wyoming. Personally I am indebted to Shelby Nivatonant for her labors, they go well beyond the boundaries of friendship. The CNPSM’s Archiving & Catalog System is unique to the massive J. Paul Getty collections and our own CNPSM. In both instances it will stand the test of time.

Best of luck to you Shelby as you complete year two of Law School.

10/23/2022

This is the updated façade of the Jim McCharen Student Activity Center on the campus of CHS. Over the next 18-24 months there will be work on projects inside and outside the facility. When completed this will be the entrance to the new CNPSM. The entrance will be in the SW corner of the lobby.