Called the father of American wood engraving, Alexander Anderson was this country's first skilled and sophisticated relief engraver. He was the first documented American artist to use the engraver's burin on end-grain wood, and beginning at a time when relief illustration in American books was either mostly absent or frank but awkward, he produced images that quickly gained critical recognition. Relief engraving entered a new era due not only to Anderson's use of a durable and economical medium but also to the quality of his work.

Alexander Anderson was born on 21 April 1775, the second son of a literate family of moderate means. His father, an immigrant from Aberdeen, Scotland, was a publisher and printer in New York before the Revolution and later was an auctioneer; his mother, Sarah Lockwood, came from Greenwich, Connecticut. The family lived in the hub of the city, on Wall Street, close to the...