The Petroleum Museum offers an amazing journey through 500 million years of history. Its 40,000 square feet of interactive exhibits cover all aspects of the petroleum industry from geology, the formation of oil, its exploration, pipelining, marketing, and refining to the economic and political impact of the industry. Intertwined within the petroleum exhibits are historical displays of the cultural history of man in the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico.

The Archive Center and Library is a historical collection of primary sources on all phases of the petroleum industry (exploration, drilling, production, pipelining, marketing, service and supply). The Center is for the collection, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge, both through exhibits and publications of the petroleum industry and its "makers and shakers."

The Center is a depository of private papers, company records, sound recordings (over 500 one-hour tapes with typed transcriptions), motion picture film (1926-), and maps. There are over 230,000 photographs pertinent to the Permian Basin petroleum industry, its boomtowns and cities (those based on an economy of oil), along with thousands of portraits of oil men and women.

There are 160-canned aerial film of the entire Permian Basin, taken between 1943 and 1946.

There is a non-circulating reference library that includes over 1500 books, company in-house journals, industry trade magazines and catalogues, dating back to 1884 for researching the oil and gas tools, and equipment donated to the museum. The Center also has newspaper runs, including the San Angelo Standard Times, The Colorado City Clipper, Fort Stockton Pioneer, and The Pecos Gusher and Pecos Enterprise (1911-1963). The Center contains over 3,000 square feet including reading room, administrative offices, reference library, art storage room, and a conservation and processing room.

The reference library is available for research for historians, scholars, reporters, and researchers.

The museum offers several types of educational programs. The docent program currently has over 30 trained volunteers to provide docented tours for students and adults. The museum provides tours each school year for all of the city's 4th and 8th grade students. Schools throughout the Permian Basin also incorporate the Petroleum Museum into their curriculum. Our pre-visit puppet show, also provided by volunteers, prepares elementary students for their field trip by dramatizing Permian Basin history and introducing important petroleum concepts.

Outreach programs are also available to area schools and groups. Museum staff and volunteers provide programs covering geology, fossils, Midland history, Indians, and dinosaurs. Museum camp-ins offer scout groups an overnight experience while providing quality educational programs pertaining to the evening's theme.

The museum's Brown Bag Lunch series brings various speakers to the museum covering area history and industry topics several times a year.

Access: General Public, Students, Scholars, Members

Appointment required: False