Research Facility

The Kansas Oil Museum and Butler County Historical Society is home to the Rolla A. Clymer Memorial Research Facility, whose large collection of resources is available free of charge to anyone interested in researching family, local, and state history.  With over 4000 books and manuscripts, newspaper archives from the 1870s up to the present day, historic maps and photos, and many other materials spanning the county's entire history, we have something for nearly every research interest.

The library offers use of our state-of-the-art microfilm reader that allows easy viewing and reproduction of articles from our newspaper archive, in addition to copier and scanner for books and images.  Free access to Ancestry.com is also available from our library computers.

If you are not able to make a trip to visit the library yourself, we offer research services for a small fee.  Obituary look-ups, general research, and historic photo duplication are all available to long-distance researchers. 

Please give us a call at 316-321-9333 or send an e-mail to curator@kansasoilmuseum.org for more information.

Resources

• Over 4000 volumes of Kansas, Butler County, and oil history

• El Dorado newspapers on microfilm, 1870-present

• Butler County plat maps, 1885 and 1905

• El Dorado city atlases, 1917 and 1930

• El Dorado city directories

• Tombstone inscriptions for all Butler County cemeteries

• School yearbooks

• Extensive family records

• D.A.R. genealogy reference collection

• Genealogy and oil history periodicals

• Rare and vintage books

• Nearly 150 years of historic Butler County photos & archives