John Hampson

Centennial Wheel by John Hampson, completed in 1892. Fairbanks Museum Washington after Bidding his Generals Good-Bye, April 11, 1783, by John Hampson, completed in 1909. Fairbanks Museum John Hampson (1836–1923) was an artist whose works hang at the Fairbanks Museum in Vermont. Hampson is known for his unusual mosaics formed of tens of thousands of insects, whether moths, butterflies, or beetles.

Life Hampson was born in Offerton, a suburb of Stockport, Cheshire, England, on July 9, 1836. and came to the United States in 1858. Hampson had a keen interest in steam engines, and in 1865 he operated a self-designed, three-wheeled, steam-powered road vehicle, one of the first "horseless waggons" in America. His son, John J. Hampson, worked as a machinist for Thomas Edison from 1907 to 1915, and it is said that Hampson himself was contracted by Edison to construct experimental equipment in his laboratory when Edison moved to Menlo Park in 1876. Although his actual employment is disputed, when Edison installed electric lighting in his headquarters, he wrote that it was powered by "the little Hampson steam engine that we had in the Menlo Park machine shop". inspired him to create at least nine Each piece, taking a few years to construct, includes between 6,300 and 13,500 insects and each has a decorated frame that he constructed as well. and one in which he celebrated his own 50th birthday. was the Seven of the works are on display at the museum; three collages, General Slocum (of Henry Warner Slocum), a portrait of George Washington, and a kaleidoscopic design are considered too damaged to exhibit. stated "It would take perhaps three or four years for Hampson to complete one picture, mounting the insects so that the white, black, red, orange, blue and yellow wings would form pictures of famous American generals in characteristic poses, or intricate designs such as the North Star, completed in 1887, or the Centennial Wheel, finished in 1892, copies from patchwork quilts, which had won prizes at exhibitions."