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Catalog Data

Artist:
James Hamilton, born near Belfast, Ireland 1819-died San Francisco, CA 1878  Search this
Medium:
oil on paperboard
Dimensions:
22 x 16 1/8 in. (55.9 x 40.9 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
ca. 1861
Luce Center Label:
Rouseville, Pennsylvania, lay within a few miles of Titusville and Pithole City, two of the most famous boomtowns in Pennsylvania ’s oil fields. From 1859 until after the Civil War, new gushers brought investors, cardsharps, saloons, and speculators into these rural settlements. As quickly as they grew, however, the towns collapsed, often from the effects of fires like the one shown here. In the 1860s, American industrialist John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) was in the thick of this oil boom, maneuvering to establish the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller’s investments in railroads and refineries would make him one of America’s richest men, long after the wildcatters in the Pennsylvania fields had gone bust.
Topic:
Figure group  Search this
Landscape\celestial\moon  Search this
Landscape\time\night  Search this
Disaster\fire  Search this
Landscape\Pennsylvania\Rouseville  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase
Object number:
1977.50
Restrictions & Rights:
CC0
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Painting and Sculpture
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk71b581036-46de-450a-8e99-e1a5b68ba355
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1977.50