Derrick and Drill [with] Map of the Oil Region of Pennsylvania

A contemporary overview of America’s first oil rush.

Derrick and Drill, or an Insight into the Discovery, Development, and Present Condition and Future Prospects of Petroleum, in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, &c. was published by James Miller in New York in 1865. It provides a loose overview of early American oil production since the first commercial well was bored on the banks of Oil Creek, Pennsylvania in 1859.

But even then, in his introduction, the author admits “the development of the vast oil interest…is of too recent occurrence to have its history written at this early day.”

What follows is a compilation of anecdotal stories, geographic descriptions, and biographical summaries of the major oil producing areas and the investors that played a pivotal role in their development.

The book also includes a fold-out map, printed in blue, showing the oil region of Pennsylvania. The image is centered on the appropriately named Oil City and identifies railroads and oil company property such as derricks, refineries, and wells.