Rufus Porter’s Curious World: Art and Invention in America, 1815-1860

Edited by Laura Fecych Sprague and Justin Wolff

Once called the “Yankee Da Vinci,” Rufus Porter was an itinerant portrait painter and muralist, a publisher and author, an inventor of mechanical improvements, and an impresario who engineered an airship that promised to fly gold rush prospectors from New York to California in three days.

Through his diverse interests in painting, mechanics, aeronautics, and publishing, Rufus Porter helped transform art and science in early America—not unlike his more famous peers, Samuel F. B. Morse and Robert Fulton. This nuanced picture of Porter restores him to the pantheon of great American artist-inventors and corrects common misconceptions about his life and work.

Meticulous and contemplative, this study presents a moving portrait of an American legend—a remarkable, but unlucky, man who worked across multiple disciplines to envision an interconnected nation.

Copublished by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and Penn State University Press.

The book accompanies an exhibition Rufus Porter’s Curious World Art and Invention in America, 1815-1860 on view at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art from December 12, 2019 through May 31, 2020.

Hardcover, 2019: 152 pages; 87 color/19 b&w illustrations; 11: × 10”