Photography & Image Resources
Updated December 2009
In addition to the outstanding oil history collections available at community oil patch museums, AOGHS members recommend the following online oil history resources for energy educators.
Documenting Rangely, Colorado
Ken Bailey developed his talents as a cartoonist and amateur photographer as a young man in Rangely, Colorado. The Rangely oil field boom was in full swing by 1949 when Bailey and his "oil geek" friends roamed among about 500 oil wells. The town was born just two years earlier, when Chevron reopened their Raven A-1 well, which had been drilled and capped in 1931 because of depressed prices.
For Bailey, the acres of pump jacks and oil field equipment were fascinating subjects for his camera. "Almost forty years after my family moved on from Rangely, I continue to follow the history of that unique place eagerly, as well as the petroleum industry in general as well," he says. "I feel very honored to have had the privilege of growing up there at that time in history, when much of the lay of the field from the initial boom years was still intact."
Bailey's hobby documented Rangely's boom in a unique way, presented in three separate albums:
http://picasaweb.google.com/maryhefley4/HistoricRangelyOilField
http://picasaweb.google.com/maryhefley4/HistoricRangelyOilfieldVolII
http://picasaweb.google.com/maryhefley4/ModernRangelyOilField
"I am very thankful, also, for the museums and organizations (such as yours) who strive to preserve the historical record of this very colorful industry and its central role in the development of this country and others around the world," Bailey explains. "I have enjoyed using the links on your site to visit a number of the listed museums online, as well as look at some dandy photos from the 'early steel' era I missed in Rangely: the 1930s, 40s, and 50s."
Editor's Resources
The Sloane Gallery in Houston, Texas, maintains an extensive gallery of vintage and oil history photography. The gallery is located at 2616 Fondren Road. Call (713) 782-5011. The website, SloaneGallery.com, also features a large online sampling of the gallery’s collection of vintage oilfield photographs.
In addition, long-time AOGHS supporter JoAnn Cowans offers an outstanding collection of her limited edition Giclée prints of California oilfield paintings at Black Gold Prints.
American Memory of the Library of Congress provides free and open access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning. It includes spectacular stereoscopic views of the oil region of Pennsylvania and New York.
The Berkely Digital Sun Site provides a searchable database of early California history. Search “oil” and 260 high-resolution images from the “Oil Industry in California 1911–1914” are displayed with thumbnails.
The California Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal website includes photography colections of drilling, pumping units, historical images from the state, and oil seeps.
This collection of photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company Collection includes more than 25,000 glass negatives and transparencies as well as about 300 color photo-lithograph prints, mostly of the eastern United States. The collection includes images from along railroad lines in the United States and Mexico in the 1880s and 1890s as well as oil history views of California, Wyoming and the Canadian Rockies.
This University of Northern Iowa Library page provides a summary page of excellent web links (Digitized Primary American History Sources) that include photographs and other historical documentation. A section entitled Images /Cartoons offers a further breakdown of topics and sources with links to the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution and the National Archives and Records Administration.
University of San Diego History Department has an outstanding collection of web resources, including links to historical pictures collections such as the Library of Congress’s American Memory project, Presidential Library exhibits, local digital libraries, as well as links to commercial web sites. Links to the oil history picture collection are organized by topic.
This site is part of the Oklahoma GenWeb project and features “Snapshots of the Past,” which includes oil history photographs submitted by visitors responding to the sites query, “Do you have an Oklahoma photo online or a photo you'd like to scan or have scanned to put online? Know of an Oklahoma event or historical site online? Send the link and we'll add it to our ever growing list or contact us about including your photo on-line.”
The National Archives Library Information Center provides researchers nationwide with convenient access to content beyond the physical holdings of their two facilities in Washington, DC, and in College Park, MD. This site provides numerous oil history links to information and images covering American history and government.
The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection has over 17,400 maps online. The collection includes rare 18th century and 19th century maps and other cartographic materials in resolutions which permit detailed searches. Oil history maps are accessible through a keyword searchable database. Early Pennsylvania Oil Region maps and contemporary advertisements are well represented.
The Library of Congress Nineteenth Century in Print Periodicals includes 955 volumes and more than 750,000 pages from 23 19th century periodicals, including magazines like Atlantic Monthly, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Manufacturer and Builder, and Scientific American. Many are text searchable.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office includes full-text and full-page image databases, but patents issued from 1790 through 1975 are searchable only by patent number, issue date, and current classifications. Attempts to search those oil history patents by any other fields will result in an error message. The Google Beta Patent Search page is not so limited, but does not include trademark information.
New York Public Library Digital Gallery provides access to over 600,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the oil history collections, including historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more. Also included are excellent Pennsylvania oil history images from the Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views. This link to the New York Public Library Image Databases and Indexes Online provides easy access to a host of websites offering a broad spectrum of mostly text searchable sources of oilfield imagery. A full text searchable archive of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1841-1902) is just one of many provided website links that enable researchers to gather both oil history images and text of news, advertisements, etc.
Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act on July 1, 1862, hoping to bind the Union's East and West. This site documents construction efforts and features an extraordinary oil history collection of stereoscopic views of railroad expansion across America. The online Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum website, launched in 1999, has become a leading railroad image resource.
The Wikipedia public domain image resources listing provides comprehensive online sources of oil history imagery with subheadings for history and specific periods of history. However, the presence of a resource on this list does not guarantee that all or any of the images in it are in the public domain. Users should verify copyright status of individual images selected.
The Wichita Photo Archives website is maintained by the Wichita Public Library Local History Section, Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, and Wichita State University Libraries' Department of Special Collections. The partners in this project provide access to materials for educational and research purposes. Downloading oil history materials for personal use with proper attribution of the source is permitted; however, this does not grant permission to publish. That permission must be sought separately.
Support AOGHS Today -- and help us expand this resource collection for energy educators! |
