Newsam, Albert, 1809-1864

Albert Newsam (1809-1864) was a deaf artist who was born in Steubenville, OH, and orphaned at an early age. Through devious means he was taken to Philadelphia where, by good fortune, he was admitted in 1820 to the recently established Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. Newsam had exhibited great talent as an artist while a young man, and became an apprentice with Philadelphia lithographer Col. Cephas G. Childs (1793-1871) in 1827, after which he became the principal artist with the noted printer Peter S. Duval (1804 or 05-1886). A master copyist and portraitist, Newsam is generally credited with helping to elevate the art of lithography in the United States. His career ended suddenly in 1859 when he suffered a stroke that affected his vision and coordination. He spent his final years at Dr. John A. Brown's Living Home for the Sick and Well, near Wilmington, Delaware, a situation arranged for him and funded by a committee of friends that included John A. McAllister. For further biographical information, see: Joseph O. Pyatt, Memoir of Albert Newsam (1864); David McNeely Stauffer, "Lithographic Portraits of Albert Newsam," in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (1900-1901); and Wendy Wick Reaves, "Portraits for Every Parlor: Albert Newsam and American Portrait Lithography," in American Portrait Prints (1984).