(b Cheshire, CT, ?1754; d New Haven, CT, 31 Jan 1832). American engraver. Doolittle learnt to engrave in metal through his apprenticeship to a silversmith. His career as an independent craftsman was interrupted by army service during the American Revolution, during which time he met Ralph Earl, whose drawings of battle scenes, including the battles of Lexington and Concord, Doolittle was later to engrave on copper. The success of these historical scenes, for example A View of the Town of Concord, published in New Haven in 1775, enabled Doolittle to abandon his trade as a silversmith. Responding to patriotic demand for images of the new American leaders, Doolittle engraved likenesses of successive American presidents, including George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The tribute to Washington he first issued in 1788, A Display of the United States of America (1794; New Haven, CT, Yale U. A.G.), was reworked five times. He also engraved book illustrations, scenic views and bookplates. Although not the first engraver in America, as he was later to claim, Doolittle was the only one of his generation to attempt to expand beyond service work to original compositions on a regular basis.
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