{"title":"Cover Essay: Visualizing Oil's Pubic Image.","authors":"Sarah Stanford-Mcintrye","doi":"10.1353/tech.2026.a988848","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This essay examines the American Petroleum Institute (API) Photo and Film Collection to show how institutional image archives can reshape the history of technology. Reading the collection longitudinally rather than focusing on a single image, the essay traces shifts from early spectacles of industrial scale to midcentury abstractions of refinery monumentality and, by the 1970s, to people-centered depictions of safety, environmental care, and scientific expertise. Focusing on seismic testing imagery produced in the wake of environmental crisis and regulatory change, the essay argues that contradiction within the archive is historically revealing. The API's photographs simultaneously celebrate technological expansion and attempt to rehabilitate oil's public image. By treating inconsistency as evidence rather than error, this essay demonstrates how historians can use visual collections to uncover institutional anxiety, shifting political pressures, and the contested meanings of technological progress.</p>","PeriodicalId":49446,"journal":{"name":"Technology and Culture","volume":"67 2","pages":"321-332"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Technology and Culture","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2026.a988848","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This essay examines the American Petroleum Institute (API) Photo and Film Collection to show how institutional image archives can reshape the history of technology. Reading the collection longitudinally rather than focusing on a single image, the essay traces shifts from early spectacles of industrial scale to midcentury abstractions of refinery monumentality and, by the 1970s, to people-centered depictions of safety, environmental care, and scientific expertise. Focusing on seismic testing imagery produced in the wake of environmental crisis and regulatory change, the essay argues that contradiction within the archive is historically revealing. The API's photographs simultaneously celebrate technological expansion and attempt to rehabilitate oil's public image. By treating inconsistency as evidence rather than error, this essay demonstrates how historians can use visual collections to uncover institutional anxiety, shifting political pressures, and the contested meanings of technological progress.
期刊介绍：
Technology and Culture, the preeminent journal of the history of technology, draws on scholarship in diverse disciplines to publish insightful pieces intended for general readers as well as specialists. Subscribers include scientists, engineers, anthropologists, sociologists, economists, museum curators, archivists, scholars, librarians, educators, historians, and many others. In addition to scholarly essays, each issue features 30-40 book reviews and reviews of new museum exhibitions. To illuminate important debates and draw attention to specific topics, the journal occasionally publishes thematic issues. Technology and Culture is the official journal of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT).
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