Originally from an English family of engravers, Peter Rushton Maverick (1755 to 1807), began as a silversmith in New York City and became an accomplished and celebrated engraver and designer, primarily of bookplates. He was the teacher of his son, Peter Maverick 91780 to 1831), who became well known as an engraver of book illustrations. Father and son were both prominent engravers, artisans and businessmen in the New York City and Newark, New Jersey communities.

Biographical note by p4A editorial staff; 2013.

Joseph Callender (6 May 1751 to 10 Nov 1821) A Boston engraver and die-sinker, Joseph Callender (6 May 1751 to 10 Nov 1821) apprenticed with Paul Revere before opening his own State Street die shop, where he worked for the Massachusetts mint and designed seals for Bowdoin College (1798) and other clients. He also designed and engraved numerous bookplates and illustrations for Federal era magazines. In addition to his professional work, Callender was a founder of the Massachusetts Bible Society.

Biographical Note by p4A editorial staff; 2013.

A Victorian era wood engraver, Alfred Lewis Clarke was born April 6, 1857 in Springfield, Ohio, and is thought to have died in 1947. He was the son of Thomas Peckman Clarke and Sarah Ann Hawthorne and had two siblings, both also born in Springfield. His mother was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1835, his father in Providence, Rhode Island in 1832. Thomas Clarke moved to Springfield at the age of eleven with his parents in 1843. He attended Wittenberg College and then studied law before being admitted to the bar.

Throughout his life Clarke worked as an engraver and designer. Circa 1874 Clarke was working in Springfield with the Kentucky born wood engraver Charles H. Hall. By 1880 Hall had moved to Cincinnati and Clarke had formed a partnership with his younger brother Frank in the firm Clarke Brothers (1879), which specialized in wood engravings of agricultural and industrial equipment for use in advertising. The firm was listed in the Springfield directory through 1896. In 1881 The History of Clark County, Ohio, published by W.H. Beers & Co. in Chicago described the Clarke brothers as “occupying an office in the new Bookwalter Block, and stand high in their art, as well as in the estimation of the community, as young men of excellent morals, strict integrity and sterling qualities. The work of the young Clarke brothers is placed in successful competition with that of New York engravers, both as to quality and price.”

Reference note by p4A editorial staff; July 2011.