The Plains Indians & Pioneers Museum is proud to offer the fifth installment of an additional 4,000 digital images from the McDonald Collection bringing our online viewable digital collection to 22012. These images represent an important view of the history of people, places, and events of this region during the 20th century.

The McDonald Studio offered photographic services to the people of Northwest Oklahoma and beyond for nearly 70 years. When the studio closed, the entire inventory of prints, slides, and negatives…some 45,000 in number…were turned over to PIPM.

Subsequent additions to the archive will be added as we’re able to do them. If you’re interested in providing funding for adding images to the archive, please contact the Museum.

Important Notes on Searching the Archive

The link below will take you to a page where you’ll be able to search by family name, location, or event. The search engine is very robust and requires only minimal input to find images. If you are unable to find the image you’re searching for, keep checking back as we’ll be adding additional images as time goes by. As of March 2025, we are only about half way through the digitization process of the collection. Thanks to continued support of the Oklahoma Historical Society through its Heritage Preservation Grant program, we hope to continue the work we’ve done so far and see it through to its completion.

It is important to remember that the McDonald Collection is comprised of very few finished portraits. The vast majority of prints were proofs for the purchaser to view prior to the finished product. Consequently, you may find that the light and exposure of each varies. Following a museum best practices, we scan digitize the images just as we find them without altering anything.

The images in the database are low resolution. This keeps the Museum’s costs low. If you desire a higher resolution image, please contact the Museum with the accession number and we’ll accommodate the request.

If you have trouble with the search engine or have questions regarding the McDonald Collection, feel free to contact the Museum at 580-256-6136.

Enjoy your search!