The Standard Oil Octopus, 1879
The nineteenth century is not known for having demonstrated environmental awareness. Cartoons from that time which could be labelled as such, are quite scarce. For one to appear, some really awful disaster had to have occurred.
In 1879 and 1880, a couple cartoons were published depicting the effects of massive environmental damage caused by the Standard Oil Company, in the vicinity of Hunter’s Point, Brooklyn, where Standard Oil had a refinery.
Below, from the front page of the February 4, 2026 (New York) Daily Graphic, is one of those cartoons. Railroad monopolist & stock market manipulator William Vanderbilt is the top right vulture flying overhead. The other two vultures, are brothers William (left) and John ( lower right) Rockefeller, who owned the Standard Oil refinery.
I’m of course showing this cartoon now, as it is unfortunately a perfect illustration for the current BP Oil offshore Gulf disaster, south of Louisiana and Alabama.
Click on picture to see an enlarged version — you really need to, to appreciate it.
Doug Wheeler
NYDailyGraphic BigOil
— Doug
[...] a year-and-a-half after another Daily Graphic cartoon on the Hunter’s Point Refinery — The Standard Oil Octopus - showing that its effects upon the environment and nearby residents, was continuing and [...]
[...] Rockefeller brothers and William Vanderbilt were owners of the Standard Oil Company. Click here to see an 1879 cartoon involving a Standard Oil Company environmental disaster, with the [...]