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Published: February 7th 2022
BP Super
Over the years we have visited many museums of various kinds. But this is the first time we visited a petrol museumA little known, but very fascinating, museum
Over the years we have visited many museums of various kinds. We have found that those that cover a very narrow theme often tend to be very good. In the town Älvsbyn we heard of one museum that seemed to fit the profile of covering a narrow theme - namely a petrol museum. That sounded odd but interesting. We decided to visit it.
Strictly the museum was not about petrol but rather about various advertising material for petrol stations and oil companies.
The items in the museum all come from a private collection. When we arrived the staff, one person only, was about to close the museum for the day. When he saw us coming he explained that he was not able to stay to keep it open for us. But he made a call to the owner of the museum/collection and he was kind enough to come over so that we could see it. That turned out to be excellent for us, because then we got a private tour by the collector himself.
He told us that he began the collection
Shell
We have found that those that cover a very narrow theme often tend to be very good. This museum in Älvsbyn was a perfect example of that by collecting items from one particular petrol company - Caltex. When the collection grew he began acquiring items also from other companies. In the beginning the purpose of getting those other items was to use them as trading objects with other collectors. But eventually he realised that he had so many objects that he had a decent collection covering several major petrol brands.
We do not have any special interest in petrol, but still we absolutely loved this museum. There were objects everywhere and often there was a story behind the objects as well. It really brought an extra dimension to the visit to have the collector himself there showing some of the special items and explaining what it is. If we had not had him several really interesting things would have gone under the radar for us simply because there were so many things there on display. You could say that there were so many objects there that much of it became hidden in plain sight.
Examples of items that are on display include signs, petrol pumps, calendars, thermometers, an early navigation system, road maps and much much more.
As
Texaco
In the town Älvsbyn we heard of one museum that seemed to fit the profile of covering a narrow theme - namely a petrol museum. That sounded odd but interesting. we mentioned above, this is not the first "theme museum" we have visited. We have fond memories of a teddy bear museum in Skagen in Denmark. That was many years before we joined Travelblog so we don't have any blog entry showing that museum. But when we visited a
toilet museum in Delhi we could not stop ourselves from writing about it. Also the
Museum of Illusions in Vilnius we have mentioned in a blog and
Body Worlds in Amsterdam was also fascinating enough to make us write about it.
Before we quit this blog entry we'd like to mention that we next year have plans to visit a theme museum that we have wanted to see for many years. At the moment we will not reveal what the theme of that museum is. But we can present a little teaser: It is regularly featured on lists of the most unusual museums in the world.
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Sheri Schroeder
non-member comment
Petrol museum
Cool!! I too enjoy these types of museums. There’s a flour museum in Minneapolis and a sex museum in Shanghai. Both are fascinating! Thanks for sharing the petrol museum.