Energy & Power
The Museum's collections on energy and power illuminate the role of fire, steam, wind, water, electricity, and the atom in the nation's history. The artifacts include wood-burning stoves, water turbines, and windmills, as well as steam, gas, and diesel engines. Oil-exploration and coal-mining equipment form part of these collections, along with a computer that controlled a power plant and even bubble chambers—a tool of physicists to study protons, electrons, and other charged particles.
A special strength of the collections lies in objects related to the history of electrical power, including generators, batteries, cables, transformers, and early photovoltaic cells. A group of Thomas Edison's earliest light bulbs are a precious treasure. Hundreds of other objects represent the innumerable uses of electricity, from streetlights and railway signals to microwave ovens and satellite equipment.
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Portrait of Gillian Kinney
- Description (Brief)
- Stephen Ferris’s maternal aunt Gillian Kinney sat to him in Davenport, Iowa, in August of 1886 for this signed pencil portrait.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1886
- original artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA.16647
- catalog number
- 16647
- accession number
- 119780
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Portrait of Eunice
- Description (Brief)
- Signed and dated pencil drawing of Stephen Ferris’s sister Eunice made in 1883
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1883
- original artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA.16643
- catalog number
- 16643
- accession number
- 119780
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Donkey Shearing, Seville
- Description
- Gerome Ferris made this ink drawing in 1882 while on a trip to southern Spain with his father. The drawing demonstrates a sure hand.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- 1882
- original artist
- Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
- ID Number
- GA.16622.02
- catalog number
- 16622.02
- accession number
- 119780
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Donkey Shearing, Seville, Spain
- Description (Brief)
- In 1882 Ferris signed and dated his pen and ink sketch of a donkey shearer in Seville, where he had stayed with his father in 1881. Gerome made another view of the subject, GA*16622.02, which shows the shearer from the back.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1882
- graphic artist
- Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
- ID Number
- GA.16622.01
- catalog number
- 16622.01
- accession number
- 119780
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Wagon Train Fighting off an Indian Attack
- Description (Brief)
- A signed pencil drawing of American Indians attacking a wagon train, which Darley made in 1880.
- On the verso, Felix Darley sketched another version in pencil, not as developed as the signed version on the recto.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1880
- original artist
- Darley, Felix Octavius Carr
- ID Number
- GA.16636
- catalog number
- 16636
- accession number
- 119780
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Portrait of Man with an Earring
- Description (Brief)
- The pen and ink portrait, signed and dated 1882, shows a man who might be North African, perhaps someone Ferris sketched on his trip to North Africa and Spain in 1881 and worked up later when he returned to Philadelphia.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1882
- maker
- Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
- ID Number
- GA.16621
- catalog number
- 16621
- accession number
- 119780
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Evangeline
- Description (Brief)
- Gerome Ferris signed and dated the pen and ink drawing of Evangeline, heroine of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem of that name, for reproduction as a photo-engraving for an auction catalog. There is a penciled note below the image about Evangeline’s spindle to New York publisher Charles Klackner. The touches of white were meant to heighten the black and white contrast for reproduction.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1887
- original artist
- Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
- ID Number
- GA.16623
- catalog number
- 16623
- accession number
- 119780
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Street Sweepers
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1881
- graphic artist
- Pennell, Joseph
- ID Number
- GA.14228.01
- accession number
- 94830
- catalog number
- 14228.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Philadelphia Streetscape
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1880
- graphic artist
- Pennell, Joseph
- ID Number
- GA.14229
- accession number
- 94830
- catalog number
- 14229
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Roman Chariot Race
- Description
- Stephen Ferris collaborated with his brother-in-law Peter Moran in 1875 to make this large reproductive etching of Alexander von Wagner’s stirring painting Chariot Race in the Circus Maximus, Rome in the Presence of the Emperor Domitian. The scale of the work required an oversized copper plate, which was difficult to find. The young artists, who were new to the etching medium, fabricated their plate from the bottom of a copper boiler, according to H. R.Wray's 1893 Review of Etching in the United States. Moran, who would specialize in animal subjects, etched the horses, the archway in the background, and the roadway. Ferris, known for his portraits, etched the figures and the rest of the architecture. This etching was one of the largest made in the US at the time. The print was well received; the New York Times noted: “Of the style of execution we can speak only in the highest terms.”
- Alexander von Wagner (1838–1919), a Hungarian artist active in Germany, also enjoyed considerable success when he exhibited the painting Chariot Race in Europe in 1872. Wagner painted other versions; one was shown to critical acclaim at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. The Manchester Art Gallery in England owns a version, which may be seen on its website. It was not unusual at that time for an artist to paint several versions of a popular subject in different sizes.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1882
- 1875
- graphic artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- original artist
- Wagner
- graphic artist
- Moran, Peter
- publisher
- J. C. McCurdy & Co.
- ID Number
- GA.14534
- catalog number
- 14534
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Torre del Oro, Seville
- Description (Brief)
- While traveling in southern Spain in the summer of 1881, Stephen Ferris drew Seville’s Torre del Oro or Golden Tower in ink. The two lower sections of the tower were built by the Moors in the thirteenth century and the top section added by the Spanish in the eighteenth. Ferris, who was interested in Moorish architecture, merely recorded the outline of the top section in dots.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- graphic artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA.14537
- catalog number
- 14537
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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View in the Alhambra, Spain
- Description
- Stephen Ferris sketched and painted this pencil and watercolor view of buildings in the Alhambra complex of Granada, Spain, in 1881. This is not a finished view but a work in progress. The people rendered in pencil outline have not been colored, and there are many second thoughts like the tree at left, which has been enlarged. While in Granada, Ferris wrote a friend that he and his son were busy making sketches “much in memorandum for future use in pictures.” So captivated were they by the city that they spent more than half their Spanish visit there.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1881
- graphic artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA.14545
- catalog number
- 14545
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Ruined Brewery, Girard Avenue
- Description (Brief)
- The signed and dated watercolor of a Philadelphia brewery was made eight years after an earlier dated view in the Ferris Collection. No doubt Ferris was returning to a favorite subject. See GA*14546 and GA*14540.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1886
- original artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA.14547
- catalog number
- 14547
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Cactus at the Alhambra
- Description (Brief)
- The signed watercolor of a cactus was made during Stephen Ferris’s visit to southern Spain in 1881 with his son, Gerome. Ferris drew another extravagant growth of cactus on a gypsy cave dwelling in the Granada area. See GA*14541.
- Verso: There is a rough sketch of two reddish towers under an expansive sky on the verso. Although not identified, the quickly painted rectangular towers were probably part of the Alhambra complex in Granada where the cactus on the recto was painted..
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- graphic artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA.14550
- catalog number
- 14550
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Girl Holding Lamb
- Description
- Gerome Ferris etched this print after French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s (1825–1905) New Born Lamb, painted in 1873. Ferris’s print appeared in the catalog for the 1887 New York auction of the A. T. Stewart collection, as a reproductive etching advertising the painting for sale.
- Gerome Ferris had studied with Bouguereau in Paris in 1884 at the Académie Julian, a co-ed art school with no entrance exams and low fees. An academic-style painter, Bouguereau’s work was highly regarded in his day.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1887
- original artist
- Bouguereau, William-Adolphe
- graphic artist
- Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
- ID Number
- GA.14560
- catalog number
- 14560
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Goose Pond, East Hampton
- Description
- Mary Nimmo Moran chose The Goose Pond, Easthampton as her diploma work when the recently formed Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in London elected her a Fellow in 1881, the only woman among the sixty-five original Fellows. When she exhibited four etchings in the Society’s show, the New York Herald commented on a review in a London paper, ‘“Mrs. Moran’s work is so masculine [sic] that the Daily News critic takes it for that of a man.”’ Her vigorous etching style has been frequently noted along with her preference for working outdoors directly on a prepared plate, before the subject.
- The print shows a pond, now known as Town Pond, and Gardiner’s Mill, which still stands in the town of East Hampton, where the Morans spent many summers. Landscape and in particular the landscape around East Hampton was the subject of many of Mary Nimmo Moran’s etchings.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1881
- graphic artist
- Moran, Mary Nimmo
- ID Number
- GA.14566
- catalog number
- 14566
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Portrait of Lawrence Alma-Tadema
- Description
- Paul Rajon etched the portrait of Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912) during one of his annual six-month visits to England. Rajon first visited England in 1873 to execute a commission. He etched some original portraits, but most of his prints reproduced paintings by contemporary artists and old masters for publications. Alma-Tadema, a Dutch-born painter of neoclassical pictures, enjoyed a considerable success on the Continent and decided to move to London where his work was enthusiastically appreciated from the 1860s to 1890s. This print was intended not only for the European market but also for the United States, and it carries a U.S. copyright line. Rajon etched Alma-Tadema’s paintings as well as his portrait.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1883
- graphic artist
- Rajon, Paul-Adolphe
- publisher
- Knoedler & Co.
- British and Foreign Artists' Association
- ID Number
- GA.14592
- catalog number
- 14592
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Mission Church, New Mexico
- Description
- Thomas Moran etched this view of a mission church in New Mexico in 1881 after a photograph by friend and traveling companion William Henry Jackson (1843–1942). Moran had met Jackson in 1871 on Ferdinand V. Hayden’s Yellowstone expedition, the first government-sponsored survey of that area. Jackson and Moran worked side by side recording views. While Moran’s paintings of the West made his reputation, fewer than one-fifth of his etchings depict Western or Mexican scenes. His signature “TYM” at lower left stands for Thomas “Yellowstone” Moran.
- The church shown in this print was replaced by a stone building in the early 20th century, and the San Juan Pueblo recently changed its name to Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. It lies twenty-five miles north of Santa Fe.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1881
- Associated Date
- 1881
- graphic artist
- Moran, Thomas
- photographer
- Jackson, William Henry
- ID Number
- GA.14750
- catalog number
- 14750
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Egyptian Street Scene
- Description
- James David Smillie etched Frederick Arthur Bridgman’s painting of a Middle Eastern street scene Lady of Cairo Visiting for the American Art Review issue of June 1881. Commenting on the issue, the New York Times noted that Smillie had been “particularly happy in his drawing” of the donkey, which appears prominently in the print.
- A catalogue raisonné of Smillie’s prints has estimated that about 10,000 impressions of this scene were made, primarily for use as art magazine illustrations. To produce such a large number of prints from a copper plate, a soft metal that deteriorates with use, the publishers would have had to face the copper by electroplating. In this process (known as “steel facing”), a thin layer of iron is deposited on the copper plate.
- Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847–1928) trained with Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris and later was known as “the American Gérôme.” He made a number of trips from his Paris base to North Africa and Egypt to sketch and collect artifacts for his paintings of Egyptian and Algerian subjects.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1881
- original artist
- Bridgman, Frederick Arthur
- graphic artist
- Smillie, James David
- ID Number
- GA.14802
- catalog number
- 14802
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Farm in Winter
- Description
- Stephen Parrish etched November in February 1880, not long after his first lesson in the art from painter-etcher Peter Moran in November 1879. It was the first print that Parrish sold. Sylvester R. Koehler selected the etching for publication in the American Art Review, where it appeared in the November 1880 issue. (It reappeared in several subsequent publications.) Parrish was prepared to take great pains over many months to rework the print to satisfy Kohler. Parrish felt “my bow to the public through the medium of the Review is, to me, a very important matter.”
- The print shows a farm in winter in the Adirondack region of upstate New York. The area was extremely popular with American landscape artists who focused on its scenic beauty. Parrish, however, chose a bleak view of a local farm for his subject.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1880
- 1880-02
- graphic artist
- Parrish, Stephen
- ID Number
- GA.14892
- catalog number
- 14892
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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