Descended from a family of distinguished British artists andengravers, John Rubens Smith first studied art with his father,John Raphael Smith, a renowned English mezzotint engraver, andlater at the Royal Academy in London.
Smith emigrated to New York from London about 1807. He firstsettled in Boston, and later lived and worked in New York andPhiladelphia. During his long career in America, Smith created anenduring pictorial record of the young republic and exerted amajor influence on American art. Aside from its artisticsignificance, the importance of this collection stems from theartist's role as witness to the development of the new nation.
From 1809 to 1844, Smith traveled the length of the Easternseaboard, recording city streets, buildings and monuments, millsand factories, rivers and streams and the people he saw along theway. These drawings, most of which were never published, capturedthe spirit and energy of the country at a time of enormous growthand optimism. They are among the finest surviving images of urbanAmerica in the first half of the 19th century, and they reflectthe development of American towns into major cities as well asthe transformation of the landscape under the impact of theIndustrial Revolution.