Researching John Kane

He was the first self-taught American painter in the 20th century to be recognized by a museum. When, on his third attempt, his work was admitted to the 1927 Carnegie International Exhibition, he attracted considerable attention from the media, which initially suspected that his success was a prank. He inadvertently paved the way for other self-taught artists, from Grandma Moses to Outsider Art. Today Kane is remembered for his landscape paintings of industrial Pittsburgh, many of which are held by major museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Like the majority of his profession at the time, he moved around the country performing and spent a lot of his time in England. The playbill for the Buxton Theatre from 25 August 1792 shows that he was playing the 'Old Cockney' character in a farce called Romp. It was while fulfilling an engagement at the Buxton Theatre that he died.

According to popular folklore Kane had a large appetite and particularly enjoyed roast beef with horseradish sauce. In 1799 in Buxton, whoever prepared the dish for Kane had accidentally gathered Conium maculatum (the European species of hemlock) instead of wild horseradish.

His grave can be seen at the rear of St. Anne's churchyard in Buxton. Because of his fame during his lifetime and distinction of his having literally 'eaten himself to death', the gravestone has become a listed monument.

His grave is listed on Grave Matters, a project which aims to record the location of unusual or 'celebrity' graves in Derbyshire.

In 261 games over four seasons, Kane posted a .220 batting average (181-for-824) with 118 runs, 7 home runs, 59 RBI, 53 stolen bases and 76 bases on balls. Defensively, he finished his career with an overall .952 fielding percentage playing at every position except pitcher, catcher and first base.

Kane died in an automobile accident in St. Anthony, Idaho.

Born in Alnwick in Northumberland, Kane became an orphan when he was young and, as a result, left school at the age of seven to work in a tobacco factory. Two years later, he was able to return to school, where he spent three further years in education, before becoming an apprentice gardener. At the age of seventeen, the head gardener ordered all his staff to give a celebratory welcome to the landowner, but Kane refused, and was beaten. He left, moving to Gateshead, and found employment at an ironworks.

In Gateshead, Kane became interested in trade unionism, and founded a short-lived ironworkers' union in 1842. Its collapse, later in the year, discouraged his workmates from future attempts at forming an association, but Kane remained keen, even as his gained promotions at work, to become a roller.

Around 1850, Kane began collaborating with Joseph Cowen, who shared support for Chartism and the Revolutions of 1848. He was a founder member of Cowen's Northern Reform Union, and was a leading supporter of P. A. Taylor, its candidate in the 1859 UK general election. During the 1850s, he was also active in the Working Men's Reading Room, Northern Working Men's Permissive Bill Association and Gateshead Ratepayers' Association, and was a founder of the Cramlington Co-operative Society.

In 1862, Kane's agitation for a trade union was finally successful. Branches were formed at works across Gateshead, and Kane was elected president of the new National Association of Ironworkers. Kane travelled around the North of England to help establish branches in other cities, and the union grew until 1864, when its members in Leeds were locked out by employers. Members held out for twenty-seven weeks, but eventually had to admit defeat, and Kane was sacked by his own employer for his part in the union.

Kane now devoted his whole time to the union, temporarily moving to Walsall in an attempt to gain new members there, and trying to make agreements with the rival Associated Ironworkers of Great Britain union. He attended the "Junta"'s trade union conference of 1867, and the founding conference of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 1868, serving on the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC from 1871, and as its chairman in 1875.

In 1868, the National Association was reorganised as the "Amalgamated Malleable Ironworkers of Great Britain". Kane now became its general secretary, and editor of its newspaper, the Ironworkers' Journal. He worked with David Dale to form a board of arbitration. With the Associated Ironworkers dissolving, the reorganised union grew to 14,000 members by 1871, and 35,000 two years later, although it then went into a rapid decline, as there was a general downturn in the industry. The union headquarters moved to Darlington, and Kane also moved to the town, where he became active in local politics and stood as the Labour Representation League's candidate for Middlesbrough at the 1874 UK general election. He took second place, but was well behind the winning Liberal Party candidate Henry Bolckow.

In 1876, Kane died suddenly in Birmingham. His son, W. B. Kane, stood in the election to replace him as general secretary, but was not elected.