An Oil City Tea Party

           "Oil City is worthy of its name. The air reeks with oil. The mud is oily. The rocks perspire oil. The water shines with the rainbow hues of oil." So wrote a visitor to the booming complex of petroleum fields along Oil Creek in northwest Pennsylvania in the mid 1860's.
           Standing amid unpainted shanties, a group of strong-featured Oil City matrons gather in their finest fashions for afternoon tea.

"The Civil War, 20 Million Yankees", Time - Life books, page 85