Joseph Boggs Beale

This biography from the Archives of AskART:

Born in Philadelphia, Joseph Beale was the great-grandnephew of Betsy Ross. He devoted his career to illustrating momentous events in American history.

During the Civil War, he volunteered for service in the Gettysburg campaign in order to make sketches for "Leslie's Weekly" magazine. After the war, he was an illustrator for "Harper's Magazine." He never became very famous. He was a 20th century painter whose art belonged to the 19th century. It was whimsical, imaginative and optimistic in illustrative style and minute detail.

Source:

Judith Baxter, "American Drawings and Watercolors"

Note from Terry Barton: I am working on a book, "Cinema Before Film: The Victorian

Magic-Lantern and America's First Great Screen Artist, Joseph Boggs Beale". After his career with Leslie's, Beale created some 2,000 master paintings for the magic-lantern shows that led to the movies.

His work is in collections at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film; the Atwater Kent Museum, the Biblical Art Center, the Baylor University Museum, The Philadelphia Art Museum, The Magic Lantern Castle Museum, and private and corporate collections.

He also illustrated about 50 books, including the best-selling Pinkerton Detective

series.