Amos Lay (1765 - 1851) was an American surveyor, cartographer, and engraver active in New York in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Lay was born in New Hampshire. He began his career as a survey in Vermont and New Hampshire, where he worked as a land agent promoting properties in Ontario. He surveyed along the St. Lawrence in Franklin and St. Lawrence counties. His first map, published in 1801, is a large format map of New York compiled with Arthur J. Stansbury. He subsequently issued a larger map of New York in 1812, and in 1827, a large wall map of the United States. More by this mapmaker...

William Chapin (1802 - 1888) was a prominent New York and Philadelphia based engraver active in the early part of the 19th century. Although we know little of Chapin's early years, he seems to have been an apprenticed from 1817, at the age of 15, to John Vallance in the Philadelphia firm Tanner, Vallance, Kearny & Company. This firm, which is responsible for Tanner's early maps and atlases, had a substantial cartographic corpus. There are records to indicate that Chapin purchased his freedom from Vallance for 125 USD in 1822. In time, he established a significant engraving business under his own name, and with a heavy focus on cartographic material, in both Pennsylvania and New York. Fielding suggests that Chapin's large map of the United States is in fact the first American published map to be engraved steel. Around 1839, Chapin seems to have changed careers when he accepted a position as Commissioner of Public Schools in New York. In this capacity, Chapin developed an interest in working with and teaching blind children. Chapin served as headmaster of several schools for the blind in Ohio and New York. His most significant work with the blind took place at Overbrook School for the Blind, where he developed contemporary techniques for teaching and published the first dictionary for the blind. (Fielding, M. & Carr, J. Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers, p. 61.) Learn More...

Orramel Hinckley Throop (June 12, 1798 - 1860) was an American engraver, silversmith, and painter active in New York, Portland, Maine, and New Orleans. Throop was born in Oxford, New York. He first attempted to establish himself in Portland, Maine, with is brother D. S. Throop, where he engraved maps, trade cards, banknotes, and certificates. He was connected with the Masonic Lodge there and much of his work came through the Masonic network. He moved New York around 1825 and had an office at 172 Broadway, and there engraved for several prominent publishers. In 1828 he painted a portrait of Andrew Jackson. The then relocated to New Orleans around 1831, and remained there until about 1834. Learn More...

D. S. Throop (fl. c. 1820 - 1835) was an American engraver active in New York in the early 19th century. He is the brother of the more prolific Orramel Hinckley Throop (1798 - 1860), with whom he attempted to establish and engraving firm in Portland, Maine. Learn More...