The Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry project was supported by the Walter Benona Sharp Fund. Its origins lay in the 1951 gathering of oil pioneers at Beaumont in honor of the Spindletop discovery. At that time, Mrs. Estelle B. Sharp, wife of one of the early Spindletop drillers, began to see the need to gather the recollections of these pioneers before they, like the pioneers of trail driving and railroading, were lost. Through her contributions and those of others interested in recording the story of Texas oil, the project was begun in the summer of 1952 under the auspices of the Archives at The University of Texas.

A major collection documenting the development of the Texas oil industry from the turn of the century to 1950, these records include 218 taped interviews of oral reminiscences of pioneers in all phases of oil fields and oil booms--roughnecks, drillers, promoters, financiers, contractors, leasemen and law officers. The project was begun by sixteen interviewers who recorded on tape the memories of persons who had first-hand knowledge of the history or lore of the early oil industry in Texas.

179 transcripts of the taped interviews were indexed by ten students in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at The University of Texas at Austin, as a group project for the Indexing and Abstracting course under the direction of Professor Eugene B. Jackson. This index is a valuable contribution to an important collection.

This oral history collection is primary source material and has not been edited for consistency. Although the interviews were structured to follow similar lines of questioning, responses vary in content and length. Indexing was done directly from the material being discussed, and terms were selected from the language of the interviewee. Subject headings were used that were deemed appropriate for use by historians, folklorists, linguists, sociologists, and genealogists. Multiple access is possible through the use of personal names, corporations, geographical locations and subjects.

Entries and their modifications are alphabetized letter by letter. The "Mac's" are filed separately from the "Mc's." Variant spellings of names occur due to inconsistencies in the transcriptions. Since no reliable authority was available for determining the correct spelling, all variations are included, with appropriate "see also" references to aid the user. Names of corporations are linked with cross-references when appropriate. Therefore, it is recommended that the researcher investigate variant spellings of personal names and various names of corporations.

Interviewee's names are entered in capital letters followed by appropriate tape numbers. Persons identified only by one name, whether forename or surname, are modified by the term (person). Whenever possible, when only a surname is given, the name is modified by occupation and/or location. Towns or other geographical areas located outside of Texas are identified by their state, abbreviated according to U.S. Postal Service standards, or by the country. An effort was made to avoid a large number of entries under the general terms "Texas" and "Oil."