Collections reflect Tulsa man’s wide interests
TULSA — Jim Barnes is a curious guy. If he hears about something, he always wants to know more about it.
“I’ve been that way my entire life,” said Barnes. “I’m interested in a lot of different stuff.”
As a result, Barnes, who operates Barnes Tag Agency in south Tulsa, has accumulated “a lot of stuff,” enough to draw the attention of the Smithsonian Institute.
In 2008, the Smithsonian sent two people to go through his collections and see if he had some things they might be interested in obtaining some day. They found a number of items.
“They told me they’ve never seen one man with so much unrelated collections,” said Barnes.
Some of it is on display. Tag agency customers can pass the time looking at a small portion of his collection, which crowds the waiting area.
A visit to his office is like entering a room at a fantastic history museum.
“The more I collected the more people gave me stuff or sold me stuff,” said Barnes.
Barnes, 73, has a life story to match his eclectic collections.
He’s operated the tag agency for 33 years. He also worked for the railroad for 33 years. He’s had 42 different jobs throughout his life.
“Obviously, there were times when I did more than one job,” said Barnes.
He’s also had some unique experiences. Barnes went diving at the site of the famous Spanish shipwreck of the Atocha off the Florida Keys with famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher. “We met in Key West and started talking,” said Barnes. “After awhile, I told him I’d love to learn to dive and go on one of his hunts.”
Eventually he did, and he’s got the gold, silver and emeralds to prove it.
It would be hard to go through Barnes’ collections in less than a day.
The Smithsonian sent both a curator and photographer to Tulsa to document what he had collected.
In their inventory, they came up with 50 unique collections. Some of it is museum quality. Some of it is not.
All of it is special to Barnes.
“I’ve got a story about everything,” said Barnes.
His two big collections, which get most of the attention, are his newspapers and trains. He estimates he has collected about “400 historically significant” newspapers. It started with a newspaper from the end of World War II that declared in a huge, front-page headline “Nazis Quit.”
From that paper have come so many more. He got a large amount of newspapers from a library that was shutting down. He also saved newspapers from big moments since 1960 when he started collecting newspapers.
He has some London newspapers from the 1600s (one from 1676 and one from 1687).
“I just find them interesting,” he said.
His other large collection is miniature electric trains, which he has been collecting longer than any other items. He got his first at age 3. He got his next at age 13. It just took off from there.
“I just loved trains my entire life,” said Barnes. “That’s why I worked on the railroad for 33 years. I just loved them.”
Now, he’s got dozens of them, some displayed and others in storage.
That’s the way it is with everything.
He has about three dozen autographed baseballs, all of them signed by hall-off-amers except one. “Here’s my Pete Rose ball, a guy that many believe should be in the Hall of Fame,” Barnes said.
He’s also got a collection of autographed bats. He pulls one out of a storage bin. It is signed by Willie Mays.
He has a large collection of Mickey Mantle memorabilia collected through a long friendship with Mantle and his family.
“I used to go up to his golf tournament every year and met a lot of these guys over the years,” said Barnes.
His work history is also notable. Besides the railroad and tag agency, he’s also operated an insurance agency. He worked in his family’s pharmacies growing up in Tulsa.
He was a brick mason, traffic flagger and ditch digger for new Tulsa shopping areas in the 1960s.
Barnes has large collections of guns, ink pens, toy trucks and railroad conductor hats. He’s got more than 35 bronze eagle statues and 30 antique phones. He’s got classic golf clubs and balls.
“I find these things interesting to me,” he said. “So I collect them. Whatever it is, if I like it, I’ll collect it.”
His collection of Indian artifacts was specially notable to the Smithsonian officials.
“I know these things will be taken care of when I’m gone, and that’s important to me,” he said.