William Birch McMurtrie was born in 1816 in Philadelphia, PA, the son of Henry McMurtrie, an eminent anatomy and science teacher. William learned to delineate from his father. What other art training he had is unknown; however, he was named for William Russell Birch, Philadelphia painter and engraver, with whom he may have studied. As a man-about-town and constantly in debt, he needed to escape his creditors.
Hired as a topographical draftsman for the Pacific Coast Survey, he arrived in (showing 500 of 1738 characters). |
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