Miners+in+the+Sierras

Date: 1851-1852
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1982/1982.120_1a.jpg?itok=D5erj5Ua width="400" height="328" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/miners-sierras-18174"]] || Title: **Miners in the Sierras**

Artist: **Charles Christian Nahl** Born: Kassel, Germany 1818 Died: San Francisco, California 1878

Artist: **August Wenderoth** Born: Kassel, Germany 1819 Died: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1884

Medium: oil on canvas mounted on canvas Dimensions: 54 1/4 x 66 7/8 in. (137.7 x 169.8 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of the Fred Heilbron Collection

Accession: 1982.120 || California was admitted to the Union in 1850, less than two years after the first rumblings of the Gold Rush. President Polk encouraged Americans to settle the new state, and San Francisco quickly grew to be the fourth-busiest port in the nation. Charles Christian Nahl and August Wenderoth were refugees from Germany's political troubles of 1848. Like thousands before them, they came to California to find their fortunes, but as skilled entrepreneurs rather than adventurers. They built a studio in Sacramento and painted the first wave of prospectors.
 * Exhibition Label: **

These miners wear red, white, and blue shirts, signaling California's importance to the nation's future. But by the time Nahl and Wenderoth collaborated on this canvas, panning for gold had all but disappeared with the arrival of huge mining companies, and the new state was already an economic powerhouse.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Suggested Questions: **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Based on the painting, what do you think it would be like to be a gold miner?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What symbols of America do you see?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Nahl Biography <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Wenderoth Biography <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">SAAM Collections Page
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Links: **