The first oil well. 19th century, Library of Congress collection

Reproduction, copyrighted in 1890, of a retouched photograph showing Edwin L. Drake, to the right, and the Drake Well in the background, in Titusville, Pennsylvania, where the first commercial well was drilled in 1859 to find oil.
21413 U.S. Copyright Office

This record contains unverified, old data from caption card.