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Explore Internationally

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 653
Type Title Date Coordinates Originating Location Description
Drilling Techniques Oil Well Supply Company 1864 Latitude: 42° 52' 57.806" N
Longitude: 82° 8' 52.656" W
Petrolia

The Oil Well Supply Company, which continues to operate today on Robert Street in Petrolia, was originally founded in 1865 by Hector McKenzie, a machinist who built the first machine shop in Petrolia.
Story Charles Nicklos 1852 to 1939 Latitude: 49° 39' 15.786" N
Longitude: 21° 9' 34.326" E
Europe

Charles Nicklos was among the first wave of Hard Oilers to answer the advertisement posted by Berheim and McGarvey looking for Canadian oil men to develop the fields of Galicia (modern Poland and Ukraine).
Artifact
A portrait photo of Jacob Perkins. He has a curled mustache and is wearing a dark jacket over a white-collared shirt.
Jacob Perkins
1915
Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N
Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E
Europe
  • Jacob Perkins
Artifact
A photo showing eight oil rigs in a Polish oil field. The rigs are covered in wood. There are hills in behind the rigs.
Polish Oilfield
1937
Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N
Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E
Europe
  • Wood-covered oil derricks in what is likely a Polish oilfield. 
Artifact
A group of oil derricks. There is a road and fields in front of them and hills in the background.
Polish Oilfield
1937
Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N
Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E
Europe
  • Several oil derricks are scattered over a hilly landscape, possibly in Poland. 
Artifact
A photo of eight people standing and six people sitting in chairs in front of a building and trees.
Perkins-Nicklos Engagement
1909 to 1910
Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N
Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E
Europe
  • Both the Perkins and Nicklos families, likely at Olive Perkins and Ernest Nicklos' engagement. 
  • Front: Nellie (Herbert Perkins' wife), Ernest Nicklos, Olive Perkins, Jessia Nicklos (Ernest's mother), Jennie Perkins (Olive's mother), Charles Nicklos (Ernest's father)
Artifact
A posed photo of eight people, looking off to the right. They are wearing dark clothing. The two women (far left and third from right) have embroidery on the tops of their dresses.
Perkins Family in Galicia (Poland and Ukraine)
1901 to 1903
Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N
Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E
Europe
  • Group photograph of the Perkins family in Galicia (modern Poland and Ukraine). From left to right, back row: Jennie, Cyrus Wilfred "Fred", Herbert, Olive, Jacob, Charlie. Seated front: Eddie. 
Artifact
A woman and man sitting with three children between them. They are wearing dark clothing except for the youngest child in the middle who is wearing white. There is a mantle behind them and a fur rug at their feet.
Perkins Family in Petrolia
1885
Latitude: 42° 52' 57.065" N
Longitude: 82° 8' 36.974" W
North America
  • Jenny and Jacob Perkins posing with their three children, Olive (white dress), Herbert (standing), and Cyrus Wilfred "Fred" (seated, centre), in Petrolia a year before their move to Galicia (modern Poland and Ukraine). 
Artifact
A man and a woman standing beside a table and in front of a purple curtain. He is wearing a long brown jacket and pants. She is wearing a long brown dress with a white apron over top and is holding is arm with her hand.
Jacob and Jenny Perkins
1875
Latitude: 42° 52' 57.065" N
Longitude: 82° 8' 36.974" W
North America
  • Colourized photograph of Jacob Perkins and Jenny (Jardine) Perkins, probably on their wedding day. 
Story George and Richard Fair 1857 to 1925 Latitude: 39° 3' 24.685" S
Longitude: 174° 1' 23.459" E
Australia

George Fair was born in 1858 and raised in the oil patch of Lambton County surrounded by brothers who were all interested in the oil business. Many of the boys remained single in their early twenties and were eager to achieve new heights in the oil industry.
Story Jacob Perkins 1854 to 1917 Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N
Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E
Europe

Jacob Perkins, who is counted among the most successful of the International Drillers, would progress from the shaggy, awkward-looking man shown in his wedding photo in 1876 to one of the most prominent oil producers in Galicia (modern-day Poland).
Story Lottie (Robinson) Cole 1885 to 1963 Latitude: 9° 49' 0.196" N
Longitude: 70° 56' 10.86" W
Venezuela

It wasn’t just men who travel abroad from Lambton County, a number of women also left for international adventure. Lottie Robinson was born in Oil Springs in 1886. In 1910 she married a local man named Bill Cole. Bill Cole was an International Driller.
Story James Gardner Boyd 1861 to 1929 Latitude: 20° 33' 40.565" S
Longitude: 164° 15' 56.916" E
Australia

“Just a line to let you know that old Pop has arrived safely back to the Island,” wrote International Driller James Boyd in a letter home to his family from New Caledonia, “[I’m] taking a fishing rod with me to try and catch some fine fish in the little streams below our camps.”
Story Martin J. Woodward 1849 to 1912 Latitude: 37° 40' 41.92" N
Longitude: 95° 27' 24.376" W
Borneo

The International Drillers contributed to many different aspects of opening oil fields and were not solely focused on drilling oil wells. M.J. Woodward was responsible for building the first refinery on the island of Borneo which was also the largest refinery in the world, at the time.
Drilling Techniques Canadian Oil Companies Ltd 1901 to 2015 Latitude: 42° 53' 43.703" N
Longitude: 82° 8' 43.134" W

After the Imperial Oil Refinery moved from Petrolia to Sarnia in 1898, a few local businessmen were determined that there should be a refinery in Petrolia and in 1901 the Canadian Oil Refining Company was incorporated, with a daily capacity of 1,600 barrels of crude oil.
Drilling Techniques Imperial Oil Company 1879 to 2015 Latitude: 42° 53' 31.373" N
Longitude: 82° 8' 50.863" W

Standard Oil was the big player in North America and its popularity in the United States was causing problems for Canadians. Understanding the need to work together, 16 Canadians banded together to form the Imperial Oil Company in 1880, with Jacob Englehart as the driving force.
Drilling Techniques Early Refining 1856 to 1879 Latitude: 42° 46' 22.588" N
Longitude: 82° 7' 16.18" W

Crude oil consists of a mixture of many different compounds and when the oil is heated, the molecules of each of these compounds separate based on their weight, with lubricating oil and asphalt sinking to the bottom, kerosene in the middle, and gasoline rising to the top.
Story Charles Warren 1902 to 1987 Latitude: 31° 56' 21.952" N
Longitude: 49° 18' 13.37" E
Iran

Charles Warren grew up in Haldimand County where he learned the drilling trade while working as a water boy on gas rigs in the area. In 1923, Charles Warren and his brother Bob signed a contract with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company to drill for oil in Persia.
Story Arthur Lambert 1871 to 1953 Latitude: 3° 6' 47.794" S
Longitude: 129° 28' 32.081" E
Trinidad

A lengthy article written in the Windsor Daily Star in 1938 described Arthur Lambert as "the best known and most widely-travelled oil driller that ever represented the Petrolia clan".
Story Transportation and Communication 1849 to 1950 Latitude: 15° 52' 4.663" N
Longitude: 92° 38' 59.302" W
Mexico

Transportation and communication are two things that are easily taken for granted in our modern age. The internet allows for nearly instantaneous communication with anyone in the world and a network of airports makes no location more than a day’s travel.

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