Heading: (Photograph Album - Oil)
Author: Tydeman, F.W.L.
Title: Personal photograph album kept by a Dutch oil engineer recording his business endeavors, life and travels from 1918 to 1936, spanning the globe, much of it in California
Place Published: Various places
Publisher:
Date Published: 1918-1936
Description: Approximately 529 photographs, glued to rectos of 71 leaves in a three-ring binder, with ink captions, dates, etc. Images approx. 4x6 cm (1½x2¼”), mostly 8 per page; mounting paper is 28x21.5 cm (11x8½”), flexible black leather album.Amazing photographic record of nearly 19 years in the life and career of Dutch petroleum engineer Dr. F.W.L. Tydeman, who began working for Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company in 1915. In 1918 he was sent to Oklahoma to work at the Cushing Refinery run by the Roxana Petroleum Corp., and the album begins with several dozen photographs of wells, pumps, refining apparatus, and other features of the field. Also, there are photographs of his wife and baby daughter Betty - a new job and a new life. After about three years in Oklahoma he moves to Roxana, Illinois, and was soon posted overseas, traveling via Hawaii and Japan to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Soon he was back home in the Netherlands, with photos of The Hague. By 1923 he had returned in the U.S., with views of Pasadena, Riverside, and Ventura oil derricks, and in 1924 moved north to San Francisco for a while. His rather peripatetic life continued, and he is sent to oil fields and refineries in Mexico, Missouri, Louisiana, and elsewhere, with return trips to Holland and Europe every few years. He finally settled in San Francisco, and many of the later photographs are of outings in Northern California, with Half Moon Bay, Monterey, Carmel and Yosemite among the favored destinations. The final dated photograph is October 25, 1936.
As befitting an engineer, Mr. Tydeman was meticulous in the organization of this photographic record of his life and career. The photographs are of nearly uniform size, to fit 8 per page. Each is numbered, with several sequences. Nearly all are captioned and dated, and the time of day, shutter setting and speed, and film are often recorded. There are a few spaces for pictures that have no pictures, and while in a few instances the pictures may have been removed, most are purposely left blank, due to a defect in the exposure, described variously as ”shutter stuck open”; ”forgot to focus”; ”forgot to pull out lens”; etc.
Dr. F. W. L. Tydeman was the first Wood River Refinery superintendent. Tydeman Ave. in Roxana is named for him. There are 48 sepia photographs of the Roxana Petroleum Company, Oklahoma, showing the Cushing Refinery; Yale Field Compressor plant; Entrance to Wirt Franklin lease; B.S. Plant - W. Frauleline lease; Tank House; Drilling Machine; B.S. trap Johnson lease; Yarhola Pipeline Co. Pump Station; Wesley lease, Trebolit plant; Central pumping Power, Sinclair Oil Co.; Employees‘ Houses; Ms. Martha Hair, Pumper; Mullen Lease, and many more. There are two photographs of the legendary William S. Barnickel, who invented ways to separate water from crude oil, which would save oil companies wasting millions of barrels of potential product. He became a milliner and died at age forty-five. There are 34 views from 1921 of the Yarhola Absorption plant, Drumright, Oklahoma and Wood River Refinery, Roxana, Illinois.

Also, compelling photographs of airplanes and dirigibles at Scott Field, Illinois; the Tampico, Aguila, gasophalt factory, other Mexico photos, including Minatitlan factories.

Normal wear to covers, with black tape reinforcements to spine and edges; very good condition.