Kansas Oil & Gas Museum

The Kansas Oil & Gas Museum might be better described as a museum of an oil & gas museum. The museum has gone decades with few updates, making a time capsule of how oil and gas were perceived in the 70s and 80s. Anyone who has never experienced a petroleum museum, may be better served visiting the Kansas Oil Museum, half an hour outside of Wichita. But for those with an anthropological bent, interested in seeing oil and gas from a past cultural lens, and from the perspective of a tight knit community, this is the place. The museum includes classics such as the “Petroleum in your every-day life” exhibit but highlighting a my Little Pony Lunch box, the classic pantyhose eggs, a polyester suit, and plastic toys from The Land Before Time. Wood paneled walls encompass the largest room featuring local leaders in their Oil and Gas Hall of Fame. Old newspaper clippings and magazines fill their research library. And, most interestingly of all, models of oil wells, derricks, and refineries were all sponsored, built, and branded by local petroleum companies.

Granted, this is all subject to change. The museum has brought on a new and ambitious curator who is working to update the museum. For those with an anthropological bent, the time to visit is now. We are excited to see how the museum transforms in the coming years.