From staff reports
TITUSVILLE – Drake Well Museum and Park and Friends of Drake Well will kick off this year’s Petroleum Program Series on Thursday.
The six-part series is scheduled for every Thursday evening in March and the first Thursday in April.
Presentations will begin at 6:30 p.m. with light refreshments served at 6 p.m.
Admission to each presentation is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and free for youth, veterans and Friends of Drake Well members.
The first installment of Drake Well Museum’s 2017 Petroleum Program Series will feature a presentation by Sarah J. Wurzbacher titled “Bioenergy.”
Wurzbacher, a forestry and bioenergy educator with Penn State Extension, will introduce the basics of biomass energy in its many forms in the United States, highlighting the potential impact of developing biomass markets in communities like ours.
According to Wurzbacher, “Bioenergy is the newest, oldest technology out there. Basic bioenergy technology (e.g. burning firewood for heat) is very familiar – it kept Colonel Drake warm before he ever oversaw the drilling of the first commercial oil well – but biomass is finding more and more markets in energy development that go far beyond firewood – for heat, power, and liquid fuels at a variety of scales. Still, bioenergy often gets left out of renewable energy conversations.”
The Petroleum Program Series’ full schedule of speakers includes:
March 2 – “Bioenergy” – Sarah J. Wurzbacher, Penn State Extension
March 9 – “Women’s Activism in the Oil Region” – Melissa L. Mann, Drake Well Museum and Park
March 16 – “Poison Gas Use in World War I” – Ronald S. Lenox, Pennsylvania Military Museum
March 23 – “Music of Irving Berlin” – Phillip Atteberry, University of Pittsburgh
March 30 – “The United States Enters the Great War” – Major General John E. Stevens, USA, Ret., Pennsylvania Military Museum
April 6 – “Abraham Gesner: A Pioneer of the Modern Petroleum Industry” – William R. Brice, Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown
The 2017 Petroleum Program Series is sponsored by American Legion Cleo J. Ross Post No. 368 and the Petroleum History Institute.
Drake Well Museum and Park is located off of Route 8 south of Titusville.
Additional information about the Petroleum Program Series and other museum programs is available at www.drakewell.org, by calling (814) 827-2797 or on Facebook at Drake Well Museum and Park.
