Provenance: 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_); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; 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.