Burning Oil Well at Night, near Rouseville, Pennsylvania

James Hamilton, Burning Oil Well at Night, near Rouseville, Pennsylvania, ca. 1861, oil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1977.50
Copied James Hamilton, Burning Oil Well at Night, near Rouseville, Pennsylvania, ca. 1861, oil on paperboard, 22 x 16 1⁄8 in. (55.9 x 40.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1977.50
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Burning Oil Well at Night, near Rouseville, Pennsylvania
Artist
Date
ca. 1861
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
22 x 16 1⁄8 in. (55.9 x 40.9 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on paperboard
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group
  • Landscape — celestial — moon
  • Landscape — time — night
  • Disaster — fire
  • Landscape — Pennsylvania — Rouseville
Object Number
1977.50
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1977.50

Artwork Description

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.