Snapshots of the Past

The first steam engine designed and built in the United States, by Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, Pa., 1801 / Drawing by Thos. Arnold McKibbin. – Historic Print

The first steam engine designed and built in the United States, by Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, Pa., 1801 / Drawing by Thos. Arnold McKibbin., 1893 — antique lithograph
The first steam engine designed and built in the United States, by Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, Pa., 1801 / Drawing by Thos. Arnold McKibbin., 1893. Antique lithograph from the Work & Industry collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

A window into the past: The first steam engine designed and built in the United States, by Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, Pa., 1801 / Drawing by Thos. Arnold McKibbin., preserved in this antique lithograph. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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The first steam engine designed and built in the United States, by Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, Pa., 1801 / Drawing by Thos. Arnold McKibbin.

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Oliver Evans built this engine in Philadelphia in 1801, and this color lithograph, drawn by Thos. Arnold McKibbin and printed in 1893, presents it as the first steam engine designed and built in the United States. Evans, a self-taught inventor born in Delaware in 1755, pursued high-pressure steam and mechanized milling, and he is remembered for pushing steam power beyond the older atmospheric engines then in use. The print was made nearly a century after his work, when American interest in early industrial invention was growing, and it reflects a period that celebrated pioneers of machinery.

Created / published1893
Medium1 print : lithograph, color.
GenreLithographs Color 1890-1900.
SubjectsEvans, Oliver,--1755-1819--Associated objects. Steam engines--1890-1900.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,430 × 1,140 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-216850

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