Alvan clark biography of abraham lincoln

Remembered widely for his pioneering work in optics and astronomy, Alvan Clark is less well known as an artist, although he is thought to have executed some 500 oil portraits and miniatures during his lifetime.

Clark was born in in 1804 in Ashfield, Massachusetts, where he spent his early years on his father's farm, working at the family mill. After a brief stint in a wagon-maker's shop, he took up drawing and engraving, spending the winter season of 1824 in Boston, where he was encouraged by moderate professional success.

Returning to his home in western Massachusetts, he began itinerant work in the Connecticut River Valley as a painter of watercolor and ink portraits.

Alvan clark biography of abraham lincoln for kids

By late 1825, however, he secured employment as an engraver of cylinders for printing calico patterns. For the next ten years he labored within the booming textile industry, initially in Lowell, Massachusetts, and later in Providence, Rhode Island, New York City, and Fall River, Massachusetts.

During these years, Cl