"Grafton Tyler Brown" (1841-1918)

Was an American painter,lithographer and cartographer.He was the first African American artist to create works depicting the Pacific Northwest and California.He was born in Harrisburg,Pennsylvania.His daddy was a freedman and was involved in the abolitionist movement.Grafton worked for a printer in Philadelphia and when he was fourteen.It was there where he learned the skill lithography.He moved to San Francisco in the 1860s.He worked as a lithographer before becoming known as a painter in the 1880s.In San Francisco,he worked at Kuchel &Dressel from 1861-1867.In 1867 he opened his own firm and 1878 he created The Illustrated History of San Francisco,which consisted of 72 topographical images of the city.His work in the Bay Area in the Nevada Territory included documentation of settlements,property sales,claims and city boundaries.The following year he sold his company.Grafton left the Bay area in 1882 and  to Victoria,Brisish Columbia.While there,he participated in the Amos Bowman Geological Survey.While participating in the survey,he served as draftsman and documented the Cascade Mountains.In 1884 he moved back to the United States and traveled throughout the northwest and west,painting such sites Mt.Rainer.He lived in Portland,Oregon,painting such landscapes and also traveling to Yosemite and Yellowstone National Park to paint.In 1893,Grafton moved to St.Paul Minnesota.In St.Paul he worked again as a draftsman,this time for the United States Army Corps of Engineers and for the city of St.Paul's engineering department.He died in St.Peter,Minnesota.