Oklahoma Musicians

Washington County

Musical history, people, ensembles, photographs, and source material from the Oklahoma Musicians Library.

The musical history of Washington County.

Washington County has one of the stronger documented music infrastructures in northeastern Oklahoma. Bartlesville High School maintains a decade-based historical archive and an extensive band program with marching, concert, wind, and percussion components. The Bartlesville Musical Research Society, organized in 1908, helped build the city's musical culture through concerts, music education, scholarships, youth clubs, public programs, and library support. Its documented work is mostly outside the qualifying wind, brass, and percussion category, but it provides important context for the environment in which instrumental music developed.

Read the county history →

Read the full account, chronology, named ensembles and people, source links, and research notes. These library reports reflect their original research passes; related records below may add later evidence.

Explore the county collection

5 linked records. Connections follow county names and communities documented in the sources; they do not establish a birthplace, exact historical boundary, or continuous residence.

Photographs and visual sources.

Photograph taken for a newspaper owned by the Oklahoma Publishing Company. Caption: "The Bartlesville Handbell Choir II, directed by W. D. McKeehan, will be a guest organization at the 39th Tri-State Music Festival in Enid this week, presenting programs in conjunction with the matinee and evening Grand concerts Saturday."
[Photograph 2012.201.B0224.0567]Photograph taken for a newspaper owned by the Oklahoma Publishing Company. Caption: "The Bartlesville Handbell Choir II, directed by W. D. McKeehan, will be a guest organization at the 39th Tri-State Music Festival in Enid this week, presenting programs in conjunction with the matinee and evening Grand concerts Saturday."Oklahoma Historical Society / The Gateway to Oklahoma History · Original source