Discover Saudi Arabia: An Educational Kit from Aramco. New York: You Discover Inc., 1969. First Edition. Rare, complete set. A single box containing a booklet, loose-leaf folios, a study guide, a game flag, a prayer bead set, and Saudi stamps and coins. Illustrated throughout. Original printed cardboard box titled "Educational Materials" and sent from Aramco's Public Relations Department.
This institutional educational project—produced during the Cold War by the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) and You Discover Inc.—is a rare educational kit marketed to schools and teachers, aiming to introduce American students to Saudi Arabia within the framework of Aramco's imperial "soft power" agenda. Distributed free to educators in the United States, the kit comprises over a dozen separate items, including: a primer titled Getting to Know Saudi Arabia; a set of educational folios commissioned by Aramco on various topics; a yellow study guide titled Study Guide for You Discover Saudi Arabia; a small Saudi flag printed on a plastic pole; a titled box labeled "Prayer Beads from the Middle East"; a packet of Saudi postage stamps; and a bright yellow box liner bearing the name "Saudi Arabia" and reprinting the Islamic creed below the flag: "There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." The complete set is housed within Aramco's original brown shipping box, addressed to a school in Massachusetts, and marked "Special Fourth Class Rate – Book."
The centerpiece text, Getting to Know Saudi Arabia (Coward-McCann, Inc.), is a richly illustrated children's reader introducing young Americans to life in Saudi Arabia. Its chapters cover geography, gender roles, housing, and commerce—explaining, for example, that "Pearl divers in the Gulf wear swimming trunks and nose clips like clothespins," and that "men and women do not mix in public places." In a scene designed to teach Arabic greetings, a white boy is shown in conversation with a bearded Saudi merchant, with pages including phonetic transcriptions of phrases like "Ahlan wa sahlan" and "As-salamu alaykum." The illustrations depict idealized nuclear families, bustling marketplaces (souq/souk), desert landscapes, and children sitting on floor cushions inside homes built from concrete blocks. The book's narrative hints at modernization via Aramco, noting that Hassan's father—a former employee at the Ras Tanura refinery—was able to become a shopkeeper after saving enough money—"like quite a few Saudis."
Below the book is a rich collection of folios produced in-house by Aramco, including: Building the Tapline, Shopping in Saudi Arabia, An Arab Oasis, Transportation in Arabia, Arab Medicine, and others—all generously illustrated with maps and carefully curated photographs of Saudi life under Aramco's supervision. These pamphlets mirror the content found in Aramco World magazine, presenting American classrooms with depictions of industrialization, gender roles, and local customs, while omitting the political and labor tensions inherent in American control of the region's oil reserves. The accompanying study guide organizes the material by academic subject (geography, religion, economics, etc.) and includes discussion questions tiered for different grade levels. Notably, the guide acknowledges the prevailing American ignorance of the region:
