Thursday, June 14, 2018

the Old Red Museum of Dallas has a history exhibit of Mobil Socony Vacuum


Built in 1892, the beautifully restored Old Red Courthouse became the Old Red Museum, a local history museum, in 2007, and contains some of Dallas' most fascinating historical artifacts.


 There is a special exhibit gallery on the first floor, while the second floor is filled with exhibits, 41-touch screen computers, an educational learning center and four mini theatres.

A neon Pegasus displayed at the 1939 New York World’s Fair found its way to a Mobil gas station in Casa Linda, Texas, and later to the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History and Culture – where it’s on exhibit today.

Mobil Oil Company’s trademark has been a feature of Dallas since first welcoming attendees to a 1934 petroleum convention.

The flying red horses began their journey in 1911, when a Vacuum Oil Company subsidiary in Cape Town, South Africa, first trademarked the Pegasus logo. Based in Rochester, New York, Vacuum Oil had built a successful petroleum lubricants business around an 1869 patent by its founder, Hiram Everest, long before gasoline was even a branded product. At first, a stylized red gargoyle advertised the company, which produced early petroleum-based lubricants for horse-drawn carriages and steam engines.

The Pegasus trademark proved to be a more enduring image. In Greek mythology, Pegasus – a winged horse – carried thunderbolts for Zeus. By 1931 growth of the automobile industry expanded the Vacuum Oil product lineup to include Pegasus Spirits and Mobilgas – later simplified to Mobil.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/news/2015/06/29/8-years-after-opening-dallas-old-red-museum-is-still-in-the-red
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_County_Courthouse_(Texas)
https://aoghs.org/petroleum-art/high-flying-trademark/

1 comment:

  1. Can you imagine the price if that Neon pegasus ever was sold at an auction? A lot of petroliana collectors would be fighting for it.

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