The Image Maker

In 1860, just a year after Drake’s historic first oil well, photographer John Mather arrived in Titusville, Pennsylvania, determined to capture the burgeoning oilfields, one glass negative at a time. From his makeshift darkrooms – one on a creek barge, another strapped to his wagon – he risked life and limb to preserve the history of the nascent petroleum industry.

General Charles Miller, alongside his wife, Adelaide, tirelessly cultivated relationships with the titans of this new era, becoming a major player himself. Even Andrew Carnegie took notice, only to withdraw when Miller’s personal indiscretions threatened his reputation.

Former cavalryman Patrick Boyle, a natural storyteller, chronicled the region’s explosive growth as editor of the Oil City Derrick. His experience as a roustabout in the oil fields and later as a daring oil scout after the Civil War made him uniquely suited to report on this worldwide source of oil production statistics and news.

Through the eyes of John, Patrick, and Charles – their families and their stories – a vivid portrait emerges of the oil boom and life in late 19th-century America. This is the story of how a rough-and-tumble stretch of Oil Creek in rural Pennsylvania fueled the world’s oil lamps, machinery, trains, and, eventually, automobiles.