Tag Archives: resource extraction

Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry

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Project description: This collection consists of 179 interviews transcribed and indexed interviews recorded with participants in the Texas oil industry. The finding aid characterizes interviewees as “roughnecks, drillers, promoters, financiers, contractors, leasemen and law officers.”

Regulatory significance: Difficult to assess given that the collection is not available online. If you are familiar with this collection, please contact us with more information.

Repository: University of Texas – Austin

Interview dates: 1952 – 1958

Digital access: No online access.

Physical access: For access to interview materials, visit the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. Finding aid says that audio recording is by appointment only at archive, but seems likely from description of project that transcripts are available.

Link: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00282/cah-00282.html

University of North Texas Legislative Project

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Project description: This project was established by the Oral History program of North Texas State University in 1966, and it was still ongoing in 1985. The program appears to be discontinued now and the interviews absorbed into the broader UNT oral history program archives.

Regulatory significance: The project interviewed legislators and other state government officials, including regulatory board and commission members. Interviews occurred every two years, at the close of biennial legislative sessions and topics ranged across the spectrum of policy issues encountered during the session. (For a detailed description of project history and methodology, see Ronald E. Marcello, “Interviewing Contemporary Texas Legislators: An Atypical Approach,” The Public Historian 7:4 (Fall 1985): 53-64.)

Repository: University of North Texas

Interview dates: 1966 ~ 1990

Digital access: No online access. The UNT interview guide (linked below) has abstracts of archived interviews, including those produced though the Legislative Project.

Physical access: For access to transcripts, visit the Wills Library at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.

Link: There is no dedicated link to this project, but see this pdf oral history guide for information that includes these interviews.

Soil Conservation Service Oral History Collection

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Project description: These interviews were conducted in 1981 by the official historian of the Soil Conservation Service, Douglas Helms. The interviews were with “long-time employees,” some of which joined the SCS at its inception in 1935. Employees worked across the country, ranging from Oregon to Alabama.

Regulatory significance: Topics include: National Environmental Policy Act, watershed management, the work of the office of the administrator of the Soil Conservation Service, soil classification system, ways of achieving farmer participation in conservation programs, Civilian Conservation Corps, Great Plains Conservation Program, Strip Mine Commission, forest management, and relationships between SCS and Congress and state governments.

Repository: Iowa State University

Interview dates: 1981

Digital access: No online transcripts or audio.

Physical access: For transcripts and audio, visit the special collections department at Iowa State University.

Link: http://www.add.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/manuscripts/MS198.html

Forest History Society Oral History Collection

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Repository description: The Forest History Society’s oral history collection includes over 250 interviews with individuals involved in forest management and timber industries. Interviews were first recorded in the 1940s and the project is on-going.

Regulatory significance: At least 16 of these interviews directly address topics of forestry regulation and the impact of other environmental regulations on the practice of forest management by the Forest Service. The impact of the 1911 Mills Act and the 1960 Multiple-Use Forestry Act receives particular attention in multiple interviews. Other topics include public regulation of privately owned forests, uses of public land and timber, and the effects of the Clean Air Act, the clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species act on the activities of the Forest Service. Also of interest is the process through which interest groups, such as the Sierra Club and Chambers of Commerce participate in the policy making process.

Location: Durham, North Carolina

Dates: 1940s – Present

Digital access: Some transcripts available online, some only summarized, and interview compilations available for purchase

URL:  http://foresthistory.org/Research/ohiguide.html

Benedum and the Oil Industry Project

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Project description: A record of the oil industry from 1890 to 1950 as shown in the development of the Benedum oil interests and the experiences of Michael Late Benedum (1869-1959) and his associates, notably Joseph Clifton Trees (1869-1943). The material consists of interviews with people having special knowledge of leasing, financing, geology, oil and gas production, legal and tax problems. The interviews contain several accounts of Benedum and Trees as wildcatters; problems of oil exploration outside the U.S. (Mexico, 1911-1916, Colombia, 1915, Rumania, 1918-1919, the Philippines, 1920, and China, 1936); development of companies and corporate holdings; storage, transportation, marketing, and refining; and conservation and proration practices leading to Interstate Oil Compact Commission, 1933. [Description from finding aid]

Regulatory significance: The project provides a glimpse at the emergence and development of oil industry regulation during the early 20th century. It likely addresses to a limited degree how oil companies navigated uneven regulatory terrain across states in the U.S. and across national boundaries while exploring for oil in Mexico, Colombia, Rumania, the Philippines, and China. Additionally, the collection promises some discussion of standardization and self-regulatory organizations.

Repository: Columbia Center for Oral History

Interview dates: Circa 1951

Digital access: Only abstracts. No online transcripts or audio.

Physical access: For transcripts and audio, researchers may visit the Columbia Center for Oral History.

Link: http://oralhistoryportal.cul.columbia.edu/document.php?id=ldpd_4072325

Interviewees: John Charles Adams; William W. Arnold; Darwin Benedum; James Claxton Benedum; Michael Late Benedum; Paul Benedum; Sophie and Pearl Benedum; Charles E. Beyer; Al A. Buchanan; Clem S. Clarke; A.B. Dally, Jr.; Margaret E. Davis; John W. Dieringer; Bascom Giles; William Morris Griffith; Walter Simms Hallanan; Houston Harte; Harry B. Hickman; David Dean Johnson; Caswell S. Jones, Thomas J. Newlin and Alex U. McCandless; William J. Jones; Winchester Kelso; W. B. Lane and Roy Gardner; Charles A. MCClintock; Will E. Odom; Alexander P. Olivey; Foster B. Parriott; Andrew Donaldson Robb; Ovid Daniel Robinson; Frank B. Shepard; Tom Slick; Ernest A. Stiller; Milton E. Witherspoon.

Mining Engineers Project

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Project description: Brief interviews with notable mining engineers on salient phases of their careers. Consultants and executives of companies in widely scattered areas from Alaska to South Africa, they also provide information on the discovery and exploration of new mines.

Regulatory significance: This project appears to have only marginal regulatory significance, but some interviews potentially involve mining regulation of labor and environmental conditions. Researchers interested in issues of transnational regulation and regulatory pluralism may find value in some interviews involving mine exploration and contracts outside the U.S. Given the focus on engineering, interviews might involve issues of private regulation, particularly concerning standardization. Finally, at least one interview involves the Foreign Economic Administration and resource management during World War II.

Repository: Columbia Center for Oral History

Interview dates: Circa 1961

Digital access: Only abstracts. No online transcripts or audio.

Physical access: For transcripts and audio, researchers may visit the Columbia Center for Oral History.

Link: http://oralhistoryportal.cul.columbia.edu/document.php?id=ldpd_4076593

Interviewees: Robert Annan; John Baragwanath; Alan Bateman; Arthur Bunker; Henry Carlisle; Louis Cates; Cleveland Dodge; John Gustafson; David Irwin; Ira B. Joralemon; James Knapp; Robert Koenig; Lewis Levensaler; Jaffet Lindberg; Donald McLoughlin; W. W. Mein; Reno Sales; Henry DeWitt Smith; Comar Wilson; William E. Wrather.

Forest History Project

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Project description: These five interviews on forestry and logging contain material on conservation, woods safety, fire-fighting and the development of protective associations, old Minnesota logging camps, logging methods and machinery, and the development of the Paul Bunyan legends.

Regulatory significance: Difficult to determine, as the abstracts for these interviews are not revealing. It appears that some of them may address issues of forest management and labor regulation.

Repository: Columbia Center for Oral History

Interview dates: Circa 1957

Digital access: Only abstracts. No online transcripts or audio.

Physical access: For transcripts and audio, researchers may visit the Columbia Center for Oral History.

Link: http://oralhistoryportal.cul.columbia.edu/document.php?id=ldpd_4074540

Interviewees: Charles S. Cowan; George W. Dulany; Inman F. Eldredge; Royal S. Kellogg; Donald MacKenzie; Maggie Orr O’Neill; P. J. Rutledge; James Stevens.

Houston Mayor Bill White Collection

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Description: Collection consists of approximately 100 interviews, commissioned by Houston mayor Bill White and conducted circa 2007. Users can browse interviews by subject, and relevant subjects include: community development, conservation of the environment, environment, legislators, oil and gas industry, and politics and government. Historians at the University of Texas, Texas Southern University, and Rice University advised on the project, but many interviews were not conducted by historians but by community volunteers. The focus of the series is on exploring how Houston has changed from the 1950s to the present.

Regulatory significance: These interviews are particularly rich regarding local regulation (including the lack thereof) of urban growth, real estate development, and historic building preservation. Some address the oil industry, environmental regulation, and the relationship between banking and real estate development.

Dates: Most interviews were conducted from 2007-2008

Repository: Houston Library

Digital access: Yes. Video and transcripts available on-line through links in the finding aid.

Physical access: Material housed at the Houston Library.

Notable interviews: On environmental regulation, Terry Hershey; on real estate development and building preservation, Bob Eury, Gerald Hines, George Mitchell, and Betty Chapman; on bank and financial regulation, Marc Shapiro.

Link: http://digital.houstonlibrary.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/oralhistory