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Accepted Paper:
The (in)visibility of oil in oil company roadmaps, 1933-1950
Cecilia Slane
(University of Oklahoma)
Using a set of oil company road maps owned by a US oil field worker, this paper explores how oil and oil infrastructure was made (in)visible in these maps, while simultaneously reinforcing racialized rural landscapes and settler colonial history.
Paper long abstract:
In 1954, Mrs. George Allman gifted some of her husband's belongings to the University of Oklahoma. Within this collection is an assortment of paper products that Allman collected during his work in the Oklahoma and Texas oil fields: hotel brochures, train time tables, World War II gas rations, and multiple road maps of various US states. The road maps - published by a variety of US oil companies - offer a glimpse into the life of an individual oil field worker, as well as how oil companies integrated oil into the United States landscape through road maps available at their respective service stations. This paper explores how oil and oil infrastructure was made (in)visible in these maps, while simultaneously reinforcing racialized rural landscapes and settler colonial history.