Burning Oil Well at Night, near Rouseville, Pennsylvania

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

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Artwork Details

Title: Burning Oil Well at Night, near Rouseville, Pennsylvania
Artist: James Hamilton
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: oil
Mediums Description: oil on paperboard
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Landscape — celestial — moon
Figure group
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.