Biografie von William Birch MCMURTRIE (1816-1872)

Birth place: Philadelphia

Death place: Wash., DC

Profession: Portrait and landscape painter, topographical artist

Exhibited: Artists' Fund Society and PAFA, 1837-70; American Art Union, NYC, 1845

Work: Bancroft Lib., UC Berkeley; PAFA; BMFA; Soc. Calif. Pioneers

Comments: Son of Philadelphia anatomy and science teacher Henry McMurtrie, he was named for the painter William Russell Birch. Active in Philadelphia from 1837 to at least 1844, he sold one of his landscapes to the Pennsylvania Academy. In 1848 he was hired as topographical artist for the Pacific Coast Survey and served on the ship Ewing until 1853. While in California he executed a view of San Francisco from Telegraph Hill (1850) which was published by N. Currier the following year. He continued working for the Coast Survey until 1859; drawings and watercolors executed in these years (now at Bancroft Lib.) indicate that he worked along the West coast from San Diego up to British Columbia. In 1859 he was again working for the Coast Survey, this time in the South and East. He was in New Orleans about 1862 when he executed a drawing, "Farragut's Fleet Before New Orleans."

Sources: G&W; Rutledge, PA; Phila. CD 1844-45; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Peters, Calif. on Stone. See also Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists; P&H Samuels, 318; and Hughes, Artists in California.