Background
John Norman was born about 1748 in England.
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The Artist's Companion, and Manufacturer's Guide, Consisting of the Most Valuable Secrets in Arts and Trade ... with about Five Hundred Valuable ... from the Latest European Publications
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John Norman
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The published London parish registers do not give his name among christenings, nor has any authoritative statement been found concerning his parentage and early training. In May 1774 he advertised himself in the Pennsylvania Journal, Philadelphia, as "John Norman, Architect and Landscape Engraver, from London, " offering assistance to "booksellers in any part of America" in preparing "frontispieces of any kind. " A considerable record of his subsequent crude but prolific work has been amassed, though little has been discovered that concerns his personality. It is probable that he had a continuous struggle, echoes of which are noted in the distribution of his insolvent estate. Norman and Ward, "Engravers and Drawing Masters, " advertised in the Pennsylvania Journal, August 17, 1774, adding that "they have likewise opened an Evening Drawing School. " The next year, Norman, styling himself "Architect-Engraver, " made the copper-plate illustrations for Robert Bell's edition of Swan's British Architect, or the Builders' Treasury of Staircases.
In 1776, from his shop in Second Street, near Spruce, he published A Map of the Present Seat of War. Apparently still in Philadelphia, about 1789 he engraved a portrait of General Washington, which appeared in The Philadelphia Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1780.
In 1781 he was in Boston, and there engraved the title-piece and music of The Psalm-singers' Amusement (1781), by William Billings. Beginning two years later, in November 1783, the Boston Magazine, projected by gentlemen of historical tastes, several of whom subsequently formed the Massachusetts Historical Society, was issued by Norman & White "at their office in Marshall's Lane. " With the magazine was printed at intervals a Geographical Gazetteer of Massachusetts, now prized by collectors. The publishing firm's name was changed to Norman, White & Freeman and then, in July 1784, presumably after a disagreement, Norman dropped out.
He continued for many years to engrave portraits which neither in his own time nor among later connoisseurs were universally esteemed. His plates made for An Impartial History of the War in America between Great Britain and the United States had a scathing criticism from the Freeman's Journal (Philadelphia), January 26, 1795, the portraits of Samuel Adams, Henry Knox, and Nathanael Greene being pronounced especially bad. These and other Norman portraits are justly described by Weitenkampf as "a mixture of graver-work and stipple" foreshadowing the " 'mixed manner' which in the middle of the nineteenth century degenerated into the production of a characterless, machine-made sauce. "
Achievements
Works
book
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The Artist's Companion, and Manufacturer's Guide, Consisting of the Most Valuable Secrets in Arts and Trade ... with about Five Hundred Valuable ... from the Latest European Publications
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
-
The Artist's Companion, and Manufacturer's Guide, Consisting of the Most Valuable Secrets in Arts and Trade ... with about Five Hundred Valuable ... from the Latest European Publications
Connections
The records of the administration of his estate reveal that his wife's name was Alice and that his affairs were in bad shape.
