Suspended animation in fiction which is indistinguishable from death. In American fiction, the first story to deal with suspended animation is the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a short story by American author Washington Irving published in 1819 as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. In the story, a British subject in the American colonies wanders into the Catskill Mountains in the years before the American Revolutionary War, and finds a group of fairies, whose moonshine he drinks. He then falls asleep for 20 years, and returns to his village in what is now the United States, finding his home town
Dismissal of School on an October Afternoon memorial exhibit. In 1992, this painting was featured in the "An Exhibit of American Painting, 1815–1865: from the M. and M. Karolik Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston." "Dismissal from School on an October Afternoon" was not Inman's only work influenced by Irving. Inman was particularly interested in Rip van Winkle. In 1823, "Rip Van Winkle Awakening from His Long Sleep" was painted. Several years later Inman painted his "James Henry Hackett as Rip Van Winkle". There is also an undated sketch titled "Rip Van Winkle". James Cozzens commissioned the painting. Ownership soon passed to William P. Jones.