The Venango Museum Experience
The Venango Republic has made room on our platform for businesses we consider to be the "hidden gems" of the region. While we make a lot of jokes about the area in name of good satire, we make it very clear that our humor is in good fun and not meant to be a hindrance to the success we desire to see in the local community.
With this said, those who follow our content may recognize this image in the thumbnail as the building we use for the "Venango County House of Representatives" in our satirical articles. In reality, this building actually serves a much greater purpose that is less ridiculous and more thought provoking.
Once home to the local United States Postal Service, the building now serving as the Venango County Museum is one of the hidden gems of the region. It might not be the most mind-blowing trip one could make. But it is certainly one that will open your eyes to facts you likely did not know about the region. From industry, to public figures, to significant events, this tiny building captures more about the history of this region than one might assume at first glance.
For seven years I have known about this museum and did not think to visit it once. However, like every other business this satirical news website prompted me to check out, I chose to reach out to the directors and see if they would be interested in a review. To the shock of the staff here at the Venango Republic, they said yes leaving us to wonder if they know what it is we actually do.
We need to be completely honest and say, we did not expect these people to say yes. Originally, our plan was for them to say no and then write an article about what "might" be in the museum. At that point, we would just photoshop a bunch of exhibits from the Museum of Natural History next to barrels of oil leaking into the river. Now we have to set satire aside since it goes against our policy to defame businesses. Oh well.... Here is our review of the Venango County Museum experience with some humor mixed in.
Right off the bat, visitors are greeted at the front desk. We forgot to take a picture of the front desk, so here is a picture of some wizard in a box that you also see when you enter. We think he dates back to when this box was made.
Once you purchase the tour, you get a taste of some real historical facts that impacted more than just the oil region. Some of these facts date back to the Civil War era and pertain to the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. For those who don't know, Mr. Lincoln was a president of something at some point in time.
According to the information on the tour, John Wilkes Booth once drilled for oil near Franklin but experienced the misfortune of his well collapsing. With no more funds to keep digging, he decided to kill the president. His change in career from digging wells to digging graves did not last long. Mr. Booth must have taken something away from his days of theater because moments after performing his stunt with the president, he took an old adage literally and "broke a leg."
Interestingly, I know a marriage counselor in Lancaster PA who says he once worked with a couple who both descended from Lincoln and Booth. Not only is this ironic. It also speaks to how significant this assassination must be if centuries later, a couple must seek counseling for their marriage.
Speaking of dead presidents, you can also see a recast of President Grant’s death mask in the opening display. This mask is exactly what Grant looked like when he was..... well..... dead!
Despite the dark humor flooding the opening of this article, there is room for less disturbing facts about Venango's history. For one, we have a letter from Abraham Lincoln to a female resident of Venango County. To avoid any chance of accidentally making a dark joke again, we will emphasize that this letter was written by Lincoln before he was assassinated. This fact is backed up by the reality that dead people can't write letters.
In good class, the Venango County Museum also recognizes other historical facts that may be overlooked by people who forget others lived here before the settlers. We won't make a joke about this because.... well.... we aren't idiots!
The next section in the museum gives you the first taste of what early tech looked like in the industry of drilling oil. The following machine was designed in Ohio and has approximately 6 horse power. When you do the math, that's just enough to take your truck nowhere.
Many other exhibits in this section speak to the historical impact the region had on the world. We would talk more about this. However, aside from the fact that we don't want to spoil the details and make your visit unnecessary, we are also lazy and don't feel like writing about it. Just take our word for it that it is interesting. Here is a collage of pictures. DON'T READ THE DESCRIPTIONS!
The museum features remnants of the old Latonia Theater which some furniture shop decided to fill in with concrete. Local performers can book a show on the still existing stage where they can perform for a wall. What the museum was able to salvage from the theater were two golden peacock statues. These statues stand to honor the peacock which is not native to Venango County. Venango, which derives from a word meaning "otter" is also not native to Venango County. We keep representing our county with animals who are not from here.
Another historical piece recovered from the Latonia Theater is the organ. Still functioning and in good condition, the museum has the pipes for the organ assembled and working. This means they are ready for Count Dracula's return. Although the organ is loud, it is an awesome experience hearing it play as it gives the listener an idea of what would have been heard in the early 20th century.
What interests me most about this portion of the tour is imagining the celebrities that would have visited this theater. The Latonia was open at a time when live performances of comedy and drama were common due to the limitations of prerecording shows. It would be interesting to know if people like Jack Benny ever set foot in this theater with his cast. If you claim to know who that is, you are probably a liar. Oh yeah! Here is the organ!
So, you think Venango County is limited to stories of dead presidents, their assassins, peacock statues and a theatrical organ? Think again!
Next up on the list of interesting exhibits is this woman by the name of Ida Tarbell. We are slightly confused since last names originated from the occupations our ancestors possessed. Bells need to ring and tar is a kind of rubber. We aren't quite sure how this woman justifies her last name. What we are sure of, is that her investigative journalism was key to uncovering scandals in the first decade of the 20th century.
With standard oil becoming a monopoly, Mrs. Tarbell used investigative journalism to influence the Supreme Court to put an end to the monopoly of the Rockefeller era. The Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that the standard oil trusts were required to break up into smaller corporations to make business fair. A picture of Ida in mannequin form can be seen below.
Here's a joke: a man turns to Ida and says "I had a bell made of chocolate. What did you eat?" Ida responds "Ida Tarbell." Now laugh and let's move on.....
There is so much more to mention about this section. However, for the sake of keeping this article to a reasonable size, we are going to skip a lot of commentary and just give you a highlight of what you are able to see. As seen in the collage below, there is a lot to this section of the museum worth checking out. This covers oil industry technology, influencers, and parts of the world impacted by the local industry.
The Oil Boom Spectacular exhibit was a must see for Venango enthusiasts when it was first opened in April. Several people posted their experiences to Facebook at the time which also prompted us to post an article encouraging people to check it out. For us however, the process of coming in to see the exhibits was delayed as we were just starting off with this concept of writing reviews. Now, we finally got to see first hand what this exhibit consists of.
Something you may not have known about the history of Venango County is that elephants once roamed this area. No, we are not claiming they were native to the region. Only that they drove here, got out of their cars, and performed a circus act for people locally. Evidence can be seen below.
Venango County used to take pride in their theatrical variety. Entertainment ranged from orchestral bands, to movie theaters, to live performances. There also might have been a guy occasionally playing trumpet on a street corner for change. Who knows?
Another area of entertainment for the region was a location called Monarch Park. Created originally for the trolley system, the park became a popular site for people to visit regularly. It featured a merry go-round, rollercoaster, a small zoo with bears that could eat people, and other fun activities. The park went out of business once people learned to drive and decided they didn't want to take the trolley anymore.
There is a lot to this section that we do not have the space to cover. However, we would not be doing the museum justice by sharing what little we did without demonstrating what you get when you visit this exhibit. In nature of giving a more full picture, here is a more full picture....
After finishing up with the Oil Boom Spectacular, the last section of the museum covers the story of Pennzoil. There is so much to the story itself, we won't try to cover it all. What we will mention is that his story dates back to 1886 and began with the purchase of a farm between Oil City and Titusville. This purchase became what we know as the company that eventually left us for Texas. Why they didn't change their name to "Texoil" is still a mystery.
The Venango County Museum is a bit of a surprise for the fact that the building looks very small from the outside. Although it is not a major site, there is a ton of information that even I could not squeeze into this article without it being an overhaul. I can honestly say that this was a fun experience with a ton of exhibits I highly recommend checking out. Not to mention, the museum coordinators were very accommodating as I had two children with me at the time who were constantly needy. I don't know who they belong to. They just happened to come in with me and wouldn't leave me alone. But whatever....
Some important things to note about the museum is that they regularly hold events with their biggest current theme being the Silent Film Series. Two films have already been played so far with three more to go. The next showing will be September 13th and will feature Douglas Fairbanks "The Black Pirate."
The Venango County Museum is also holding a fundraiser to help restore the Latonia Theater Organ. More information can be found on the museum's website.
Finally, I would like to mention that there are a host of other projects and events in the works which can be found on the museum's Facebook page and on their website. However, we felt the most urgent thing to highlight was that the museum still has people wandering in from time to time with packages and letters requesting postage. We here at the Venango Republic recommended that the museum take advantage of the naïve visitors by selling stamps at a higher price than the going rate. Unfortunately, the director was too ethical to consider our suggestion.
With this said, we have decided to make a public service announcement requesting all visitors to read the sign in the front lawn that says "Venango County Museum" and to ignore the engraved writing on the top of the building that says "United States Post Office." Observers will notice that the sign suggesting the place is a museum looks new whereas the one calling it a post office looks old. This suggests something. Please use common sense when visiting this building. This message brought to you by us, not the Venango County Museum.
We here at the Venango Republic would like to thank the director and staff at the Venango County Museum for giving us the pleasure of a personal tour through the museum. We took lots of photos some of which were unfortunately unable to make it into this article. With this said, we want to encourage our readers to visit the museum yourselves and experience the history behind Venango County. It is easy to hear in conversations that there is "a lot of history" in this area without knowing what that truly means. The Venango County Museum defines that history giving visitors a taste of what the oil boom did for this region and how various events in time impacted the world.
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