Downtown Tulsa Center To Showcase Woody Guthrie Collection

Fans of Americana and folk music might want to write Tulsa, Oklahoma, onto their list of travel destinations. The George Kaiser Family Foundation, which is based in Tulsa, has purchased the entire archive of "This Land is Your Land" singer Woody Guthrie’s stuff. The foundation plans to display his writings, recordings and artwork in collection at a new center dedicated to beloved folk singer, according to The Tulsa World.

The Woody Guthrie Center is set to open in downtown Tulsa about a year from now and will mark the hundred anniversary of the Oklahoma native's birth. Visitors can expect public displays from the Guthrie archives, while scholars will be able to sink their teeth into a research center.

"It is a real privilege for the George Kaiser Family Foundation to help bring home to Oklahoma the Woody Guthrie Archives where it will remain for posterity," foundation Executive Director Ken Levit said. "The Guthrie family has inspired us through its brilliant, loving and infinitely creative stewardship of these remarkable materials over almost 50 years. We will work to meet the example the Guthrie family has established and plan for the Woody Guthrie Archives to be widely available to scholars, artists and the general public so that the story of this extraordinary Oklahoman and the state that shaped him can be told for generations to come."

It is not known how much the foundation paid for the collection, including the priceless handwritten copy of “This Land is Your Land," which you can listen to here: