Woody Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, in 1912, and the state has claimed him enthusiastically since his archive came to Tulsa. The museum in the Arts District holds guitars, manuscripts, paintings, and correspondence spanning his career from Dust Bowl balladeer to radical folk poet. His personal notebooks, on display under careful museum lighting, give you the rare sense of standing close to a genuinely important American life.
The exhibits are well designed, mixing biography with music: listening stations let you hear recordings in roughly chronological order, so you can track how his voice and politics developed. Plan for at least ninety minutes. The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.