The artist [1801-1848]; his estate, until 1857;[1] Robert M. Olyphant [1824-1918], New York, by 1867;[2] (his sale, by Robert Somerville at Chickering Hall, New York, 18-19 December 1877, 1st day, no. 64, as _The Hurricane_);purchased through (Samuel P. Avery, New York) by Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington;[3] acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art. [1] According to a receipt of sale signed by Maria Cole in the collection of miscellaneous Thomas Cole papers at the Detroit Institute of Art. The receipt reads: "Rec'd Catskill Jan. 10, 1857 of Mr. F. E. Church seven hundred dollars in full for Picture 'Tornado in an American Forest' sold to Mess. Olyphant & Son. Maria Cole." Cole's only pupil, Frederic E. Church, apparently tried to sell the painting for Cole's widow. _The Crayon_, 3 January 1855, reported that the picture was in Church's studio at the Tenth Street Studio Building in 1855. [2] The painting was published as being in the Olyphant collection by Henry Tuckerman, _Book of the Artists_, New York, 1867: 40. [3] According to the Register of Paintings Belonging to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1869-1946, the painting was received from Avery on 26 December 1877 (Series 1, Box: 135, Volume: 1. Corcoran Gallery of Art and Corcoran College of Art + Design, Corcoran Gallery of Art registrar's office records, COR0005.1-RG. Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University; digitized online and copy in NGA curatorial files). That he was acting as agent for the Corcoran Gallery at the Olyphant sale is suggested by an annotated copy of the auction catalogue in which the buyer of the painting is listed as the Corcoran. (_Catalogue, Mr. Robert M. Olyphant's collection of paintings by American artists_, New York: Somerville Art Gallery, 1877, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas J. Watson.) The Corcoran register lists six paintings from the Olyphant sale received from Avery.