HSTM graduate student Cecilia Slane created the exhibit "Oil in Flux" as part of her Dale Society Fellowship appointment at the Western History Collections for the summer of 2022. This exhibit explores the mobility of oil arranged thematically in three glass cases: transportation & infrastructure, knowledge & labor, and the beginnings of international oil production. The exhibit shows how oil, scientists and laborers, and geological knowledge moved around in the late 19th and 20th century, as oil increasingly informed geopolitics and economics, as well as social and cultural identities. Much of the material deals with the US, but the exhibit also includes pictures and manuscripts related to oil production in Venezuela, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. The exhibit will be on display at the Western History Collections through the 2022-2023 academic year.
The Dale Society Fellowship, supported by the Association of Western History Collections Endowment, supports graduate students in other University of Oklahoma graduate programs outside of the Department of History.
