“Battle of Kodak Hill”: the Ralph Arnold photographic albums of oil exploration in the Western United States

Description

Ralph Arnold was a prolific petroleum engineer, photographer and local Pasadena resident. Presented to the Huntington Library in 1958, the Ralph Arnold Collection encompasses a variety of photographic and written materials reflecting Arnold’s longstanding career both as a geologist for the United States Geological Survey, and as a petroleum consultant for various American and British oil companies looking to explore oil in the American continent. An avid and proficient photographer, Arnold produced thousands of photographs depicting his work as a petroleum consultant assessing prospective oil fields from Oklahoma to Los Angeles. These photographs, representative of the close relationship between photography, science and the oil industry in the early twentieth century are the focus of this paper.

Period	24 Nov 2015