Lossing, Benson John, 1813-1891

Historian, author.

Wood engraver, author, editor.

Benson John Lossing, editor, illustrator, and historian born in New York. Edited the Poughkeepsie Telegraph, Poughkeepsie Casket and Family Magazine. He wrote and illustrated a narrative sketchbook of the American Revolution titled the Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution.

Benson John Lossing (1813-1891), wood-engraver, author and editor, was born in Beekman, Duchess County, N.Y. on 12 February 1813. Left an orphan at the age of eleven, he was apprenticed to a watchmaker in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and at the age of twenty-two, he became joint editor of the Poughkeepsie Telegraph. In 1838, he moved to New York City where he became a wood-engraver. In 1848, financed by Harper Bros., he made a narrative sketchbook of the American Revolution, which was followed by numerous and very successful narrative sketchbooks of American persons and events.

Historian.

American author and historian.

Benson Lossing was an American wood-engraver, author, and editor, whose Dutch ancestors settled in Albany, NY. The only formal education he received was three years in the district schools in New York. At age twenty two he was joint editor and proprietor of the POUGHKEEPSIE TELEGRAPH. He learned the art of engraving on wood, and in 1838 moved to New York City where he established himself as a wood-engraver. From June 1839 to May 1841 he edited and illustrated the weekly FAMILY MAGAZINE. In 1848 Lossing conceived the idea of writing a narrative sketchbook of scenes and objects associated with the American Revolution. Harper & Brothers advanced him the funds to carry out the project, which ultimately took the form of the PICTORIAL FIELD BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION in two large volumes. In gathering material for this work Lossing traveled more than eight thousand miles in the United States and Canada. The book was published in parts between 1850 and 1852, and gave Lossing a wide reputation. For the next thirty-five years he was a prolific writer and editor of books mostly on popular subjects in American history including OUR COUNTRYMEN, OR, BRIEF MEMOIRS OF EMINENT AMERICANS (1855); A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR FAMILIES AND LIBRARIES; and A MEMORIAL OF ALEXANDER ANDERSON, MD, THE FIRST ENGRAVER ON WOOD IN AMERICA (1872).

Benson John Lossing (1813-1891) was a historian, wood engraver and editor.

Author, historian.

Author and historian, from Dover Plains (Dutchess Co.), N.Y.

Benson John Lossing (1813-1891) was an American historian who published several books and articles about the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War. Born in Beekman, New York, Lossing initially worked as a watchmaker and silversmith. He became part owner of the Poughkeepsie Telegraph and the literary journal the Poughkeepsie Casket. He provided wood engravings to illustrate articles in the Casket. He moved to New York City in the late 1830s and worked as an illustrator and journalist for several publications. His narrative sketchbook on the Revolutionary War was published by Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1850 and his Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution was published in 1853. During and after the Civil War, Lossing toured the Union and Confederacy, and published a three volume pictorial history of the war in collaboration with Matthew Brady. Lossing was involved with many charitable organizations, including his work as a charter trustee of Vassar College.

American author, editor and wood-engraver.

Benson J. Lossing was an editor, historian, author, and wood-engraver. A gifted illustrator and plain-spoken writer, he is probably best known for his popular histories of the United States. The Field Guide to the Civil War, created during the war itself, provides a singular record of locations and events.

Professional wood engraver and author of the Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution.

American author, editor of illustrated periodicals and wood engraver, Benson J. Lossing was a leading author of illustrated histories and biographies on American subjects in the 19th century.

Lossing, Benson John, (1813-1891), American historical writer and artist, author of Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812, Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America, and numerous other books. The Lossing family descended from Pietre Peitresse Lassinghe, an early Dutch settler of Albany, N.Y.

Historian, author, editor, and wood-engraver.

Lossing, Benson John, (1813-1891), American historical writer and artist, author of Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812, Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America, and numerous other books.

American author, editor, and wood-engraver.

Author, editor, wood-engraver, and popularizer of American history.

American historian, journalist and engraver.

Wood engraver, author, editor. Noted for "Pictorial History of the Civil War."

Lossing, Benson John, (1813-1891), American historical writer and artist, author of Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812, Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America, and numerous other books, mainly illustrated histories.

Lossing, Benson John, (1813-1891), American historical writer and artist, author of Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812, Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America, and numerous other books, mainly illustrated histories. His son Edwin John Lossing (d. 1911) served in the U. S. Navy.

Benson John Lossing, author and wood engraver, was born in Beekman, N.Y. in 1813.

A prolific author and editor of popular books in American history, Lossing wrote more than forty historical and biographical works including The Life and Times of Philip Schuyler.

Benson J. Lossing was a wood engraver and editor working in New York during most of the 19th century. Born in 1813 in Beekman, NY to a farmer of Dutch decent, Lossing became an orphan at age 12. The following year, he began a seven year apprenticeship to a watchmaker in Poughkeepsie, NY, after which he took up the study of wood engraving with Alexander Adams. At the age of 22, Lossing was named joint editor of the Poughkeepsie Telegraph newspaper and its corresponding literary magazine, The Poughkeepsie Casket.

In 1838, Lossing moved to New York City to work as an engraver and book publisher, producing his first book, Outline History of the Fine Arts in 1840. He took over as editor and illustrator of Family Magazine in 1839, and in 1846 he teamed up with engraver William Barritt, with whom he worked until 1869. Lossing spent the remainder of his life producing illustrations and publications concerning American history, including a biography of Senator Philip Schuyler, a biography of pioneer engraver Alexander Anderson, a history of New York City (1884), histories of the War of 1812 and the Civil War, and most notably a two volume work published in 1850-1852 entitled, Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution. Lossing married twice, first in 1833 to Alice Barritt, and after her death, he married Helen Sweet in 1856. He retired to his estate, The Ridge, in Dover Plains, NY where he died in 1891.

Wood engraver; Poughkeepsie and New York City, N.Y.

Apprenticed to a watchmaker in Poughkeepsie, but became joint editor of a newspaper and literary magazine soon thereafter. Learned wood engraving from Joseph Alexander Adams and in 1838 established himself in New York City as an engraver. In 1848, he began work on his PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION and subsequently produced many works based on American history and biographies.

Wood engraver, author, editor.

Lossing lived in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Charles Campbell (1807-1876) was born on 1 May 1807, in Petersburg, Virginia, the firstborn child of parents John Wilson Campbell (d.1842), and Mildred Walker Moore Campbell. John, a bookstore owner, was also a historian. In 1831 he published the History of Virginia to 1781 . Later, he held the position of Federal Collector of Customs in Petersburg, Virginia. Mildred taught at the Petersburg Classical Academy in the 1840's. In addition to Charles, the couple also had two younger children, Alexander (Aleck) S. Campbell, and Elizabeth (Betty) Campbell Maben (d.1871).

Charles' mother, Mildred Walker Moore Campbell, was the granddaughter of Virginia lieutenant governor Alexander Spotswood (1676-1740). Mildred Walker Moore Campbell and her siblings Mary Fairfax Moore Keller, Dr. Alexander Spotswood Moore, Ann Evelina Moore Henley, William Agustin Moore, Eliza Moore McDonald, and Lavinia Moore McPheeters wrote and received numerous pieces of personal correspondence that are available in this collection.

Charles Campbell attended the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) from 1823-1825. Upon graduation he enrolled in Henry St. George Tucker's School of Law in Winchester, Virginia. However, he suffered from chronic headaches which caused him severe physical and mental exhaustion. By 1829, these health issues would force him to leave the law profession.

Following his departure from law, Campbell worked as an engineer of the Petersburg Railroad. Later he ran a private school for boys in Glencoe, Alabama. On 13 September 1836, he married Elvira N. Callaway (1819-1837) of Monroe County, Tennessee. In 1837, Elvira died shortly after the birth of a son, Callaway Campbell (b.1837). In his distress, Campbell left his son with Elivira's siblings, Thomas and Lucinda Callaway. Later, this would result in a court case to regain custody of his child.

Following the death of his wife, Campbell worked as a clerk in the office of the Collector of Custom in Petersburg, Virginia (a position he obtained from his father John Campbell). From 1840-1843, Campbell also owned, published, and edited a Petersburg newspaper, The American Statesman . He returned to teaching in 1842 by opening a classical school in Petersburg, becoming both teacher and administrator in the Anderson Seminary. He would hold these positions until the formation of free public schools in 1870.

Campbell remarried in 1850 to Miss Anna Birdsall of Rahway, New Jersey. They had four children, Mary Spotswood Campbell Robinson (b.1852), Nanny Campbell (b.1854), Charles Campbell (b.1856), and Fanny Campbell (1858-1860's).

Charles Campbell was committed to Western Lunatic Asylum at Staunton, Virginia, in 1873 where he remained until his death on July 11, 1876. He was buried at Blandford Church Cemetery, Petersburg.

Like his father, Campbell was a historian. He began contributing to journals in 1834. Some of the journals to which he frequently contributed included; The Southern Literary Messenger or The Southern and Western Literary Messenger and Review ; The Farmer's Register ; The New Yorker ; and the Petersburg Intelligencer . His most important work, however, was the History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia . This work built upon his father's book and concerned Virginia history from the colony's founding to the Revolutionary War.

Benson John Lossing (1813-1891), historian, editor, and wood-engraver, was born at Beekman, Dutchess County, N.Y., son of John Lossing, a farmer, and Miriam (Dorland) Lossing. Benson's father and mother died when he was a child, and his formal education was limited to three years at a district school.

During his apprenticeship to a watchmaker at Poughkeepsie he read a number of history books, and over a period of several years pursued an independent study. At the age of twenty-two he was made joint editor and proprietor of the Poughkeepsie Telegraph, Dutchess County's official Democratic journal; and when he became joint editor of the Poughkeepsie Casket, a literary fortnightly, he began to learn the art of engraving on wood from J. A. Adams, illustrator for this paper. He went to New York in 1838 and in 1839 began two years of editing and illustrating for J. S. Redfield's Family Magazine .

His Outline History of the Fine Arts, prepared largely during spare moments, was published in 1840 as one of Harper's Family Library. For the Pictorial Field Book of the American Revolution (1850-52) Lossing traveled more than eight thousand miles in the United States and Canada, collecting information and dashing off hasty sketches from which he afterwards made block drawings for engravings. Harper & Bros. had advanced him the funds for this enterprise; the book was issued first in parts and later in two large octavo volumes.

During the thirty-five years that followed, Lossing published prolifically, and in all was either author or editor of more than forty titles. Among them were two more of the pictorial series, covering the War of 1812 and the Civil War. From 1872 to 1874 he was an able editor of the American Historical Record and Repertory of Notes and Queries . Lossing was twice married: in June 1833 to Alice Barritt; and during the year after her death, to Helen Sweet. The fact that Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the American Revolution is still interesting to the layman and authoritatively valuable to the antiquarian would seem to make its author more than a mere popularizer of American history.

[Adapted from American Authors 1600-1900 (1938)]

Benson John Lossing (1813-1891) was an author, editor, wood-engraver, and popularizer of American history. Lossing was at one point in correspondence with Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard apparently regarding the possible publication of a biographical work featuring Barnard.

Frederick A. P. (Frederick Augustus Porter) Barnard (1809-1889), native of Massachusetts, was educated in New York and New England. He was an astronomer, professor at the University of Alabama, and president of the University of Mississippi and Columbia University.