Laura Clubb

Laura Clubb. Courtesy Oklahoma Hall of Fame Archives.

Inducted: 1931

Hometown: Kaw City

Patron of the Philbrook Museum of Art

Despite living in an Oklahoma town with a population of less than 500, Laura Clubb was dubbed "the world's most outstanding art collector" and received national recognition for her collecting efforts. Becoming prosperous through oil and gas, Laura Clubb assembled an elaborate art collection. In the 1920s and 1930s, Clubb's collection was available to anyone willing to make the journey to her family's hotel in Northern Oklahoma. One was able to see an art collection worth millions while eating a meal which cost less than $5.00.

Laura Clubb. Courtesy Oklahoma Hall of Fame Archives.

Clubb's collection in rural Oklahoma rivaled those of collectors in Chicago, New York, and Boston. She compiled works from American masters like Thomas Moran, George Inness, and Winslow Homer. Her collection also included a work by Oklahoma artist Nan Sheets, also featured in this exhibit.

Frank Kirchbach, Christ and the Children, c.1895, in Catalogue of the Laura A. Clubb Collection and the Story of Kirchbach's Famous Masterpiece 'Christ and the Children' with a Biographical Sketch of the Artist J. Frank Kirchbach, 22a & 22b. Courtesy Western History Collections at the University of Oklahoma.

Through her collecting efforts, Laura Clubb helped establish Oklahoma's artistic culture shortly following statehood. Today, the Philbrook Museum of Art retains several paintings from Clubb's original donation to ensure others continue to benefit culturally from her life's work. 

Laura Clubb, left. Courtesy Oklahoma Hall of Fame Archives.