by Bruce Wells | Jul 31, 2024 | Petroleum Art
Caveman cartoonist Victor Hamlin worked as an oilfield cartographer in Permian Basin.
The widely popular Depression Era newspaper comic strip character Alley Oop began in the imagination of a young cartographer who drew Permian Basin oilfield maps in Texas.
The club-wielding Alley Oop caveman appeared for the first time in the summer of 1933 when Victor Hamlin, a former Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reporter, published fanciful tales about the Stone Age Kingdom of Moo. Hamlin began syndicating his daily cartoon in Iowa’s Des Moines Register.
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by Bruce Wells | Jul 5, 2024 | Petroleum Art
Did L. Frank Baum’s 1880s oil business inspire the Tin Man?
The Tin Man in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz can trace his roots to the earliest U.S. oilfields where L. Frank Baum operated a lubricant business before becoming the famous children’s book author. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jan 1, 2024 | Petroleum Art
Brief looks at some history books, personal accounts and biographies from America’s oilfields.
American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) website content includes links to just a small sample of petroleum-related history books and some of media resources relating to the history of U.S. energy. Classic historical texts available online include Paul H. Giddens’s 1936 The Birth of the Oil Industry (with introduction by Ida Tarbell).
Because AOGHS also links oil patch artwork featured in Oilfield Artists, many website visitors have asked a post that includes their fiction, research, and personal accounts or biographies. (more…)
