Explosion and burning of the cartridge factory, cor. Tenth and Read [sic], March 2[9]th 1862.
Title
Explosion and burning of the cartridge factory, cor. Tenth and Read [sic], March 2[9]th 1862
Description
Disaster scene showing the aftermath of the explosion of the factory of Professor Samuel Jackson located in South Philadelphia. Shows people fleeing, trapped, and engulfed in flames at the ruins of the burning factory. In the foreground, a man rushes to cover a man's body that has had its head and arm amputated; men throw buckets of water and blankets on women on fire; individuals carry the wounded; comfort the survivors; rush in with buckets; and hose the fire. Also shows a man looking in horror from a train car in the left of the image and debris flying in the air and lying on the ground. Over 15 people, including the son of the proprietor, perished in the explosion of the factory that was contracted to produce one and a half million experimental "solid water proof patent cartridges" during the Civil War. Jackson, a Philadelphia pyrotechnist and inventor, began the manufacture of fireworks in Philadelphia in 1837. He continued in pyrotechnics until 1887, when he began to manufacture danger signals for railroads. During his pyrotechnic career, a number of his establishments were destroyed through explosions., Name of artist supplied by Wainwright., The numeral "9" printed in the reverse in the date in the title., Inscribed on recto: North of Moyamensing Prison. Philada., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 215, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Bb 83 C 328
Creator
Magee, John L., artist
Date
[1862]
Location
Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Bb 83 C 328
The great conflagration in Philadelphia on Tuesday July 9th 1850.
Title
The great conflagration in Philadelphia on Tuesday July 9th 1850 Terrific explosion of saltpetre [sic] in Water Street. Houses destroyed by the fire 500 _ Killed 57_Wounded 115_ Loss of property over one million of dollars
Description
Disaster scene showing the commotion in front of the partially destroyed stores of John Brock & Co., and Gordon and Berger at 39 (i.e., 100 block) North Water Street. People hold a crowd back as fire fighters attend to the collapsing building spewing a cloud of smoke. A family, including a mother and child, flee past fire fighters rushing to a fallen comrade as debris falls down upon them. Also shows a man kneeling near the Vine Street Wharf as another stands in the center of the view with his arms up in the air. The explosion emanated from a fire started by the friction of a hoisting-machine igniting a large store of gunpowder and saltpeter in the Brock, and Gordon and Berger building. The blaze that spread about one square mile between Front and Callowhill streets destroyed actually about 367 houses and stores. Several people were blown into the Delaware River and residents evacuated as a result of the explosion., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 329, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Bb 83 P 544, Rosenberg, a landscape, portrait, and figures painter, worked in New York and Philadelphia during the 1850s and 1860s.
Creator
Rosenberg, Charles G., artist
Date
c1850
Location
Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Bb 83 P 544