The Venango Museum of Art, Science and Industry saw many visitors and guests from all across the U.S. during its 2024 season.
The museum, located at 270 Seneca Street in Oil City’s North Side business district, opened for its regular operating season in April 2024 with a limited-time exhibit called Oil Fields To Outfields: Baseball In The Oil Region. The exhibit provided an overview of baseball in Pennsylvania’s Oil Region from the end of the Civil War until the 1950s. The exhibit highlighted just some of the many players, teams and games throughout the region’s history in connection to its industrial past. The Baseball exhibit closed on Dec. 28, 2024.
A new and limited-time exhibit will replace the Baseball exhibit when the museum reopens for its 2025 season in April. The new exhibit will provide an overview of entertainment during Venango County’s oil boom.
Along with the Oil Fields To Outfields: Baseball In The Oil Region exhibit in 2024, the museum’s permanent exhibit Oil: Black Gold or Black Magic? continued to draw in guests from throughout the region and beyond.
The exhibit details how oil impacts everyday life from the economy to politics and even the environment — for better or for worse. Also on display was the exhibit Our Pennzoil Story, which provided a history of the Pennzoil company in Venango County.
In November the museum’s Annual Christmas Tree Display opened with various trees decorated by local schools, businesses and organizations. Free admission was offered to the museum to visitors throughout the Christmas season thanks to service club sponsors.
The Museum welcomed approximately 3,500 visitors and guests in 2024. As always, the museum’s busiest visiting season is summer, lasting from Memorial Day to Labor Day, with many visitors visiting from the Pittsburgh, Erie and Cleveland areas. Outdoor enthusiasts continued to make use of the free admission to the Oil City Visitor Center located in the museum which features an exhibit detailing Oil City’s past as the transportation and financial trading center of the early oil industry, as well as a literature cabinet containing information on all things to see and do in the Oil Region.
Along with exploring the museum’s exhibits, visitors and guests participated in the many museum programs and events throughout the last year. Programs included everything from children’s tours of the museum to Summer STEM, Art, and Music Workshops for children ages 8 through 12.
The Best Sandwich in the County contest returned during the summer, along with tours of the historic River Ridge Mansion. The museum also participated in nationwide programs such as the Blue Star Museum program, which offers free admission to the nation’s active-duty military personnel and their families, including National Guard and Reserve. Other museum events included everything from concerts by the Erie Philharmonic to a silent film showing with a live score accompanied by the museum’s historic 1920s Wurlitzer Theater Organ.
Many of the museum’s programs, events and fundraisers will return in 2025 when the museum reopens for the season, including children’s tours, special music programs, various workshops and more.
In 2024, the museum also began undertaking a $60,000 restoration project for its 1928 Wurlitzer Theater Organ — originally from Oil City’s Latonia Theater. The Museum worked with Musical Restorations LLC, based in Dayton, Virginia, on the first phase of the project which included fixing over 40 dead notes caused by internal mechanical issues, lessening the number of wind leaks, tuning the organ, getting the chrysoglott and glockenspiel functioning reliability, getting the tremulants to turn on and function reliably and much more. The next phase of the project will take place in 2025 and will focus on restoring the instrument’s percussions.
The museum will reopen for the 2025 season in early April. The museum’s regular hours of operation are April through December, Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission rates to the museum are $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and children 5 and under are free. Museum members are also free. For more information, visit www.venangomuseum.org, send an email to venangomuseum@gmail.com, or call 814-676-2007.
