Thomas Buchanan Read

Born in 1822 in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Thomas Buchanan Read became known as both a poet and an artist. He worked as a portrait painter and also wrote poems and prose, creating a career that linked the American literary world with the studio and gallery.

Read spent important years in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, and later lived for long periods in Europe, especially in Florence and Rome. His writing often blended romance, history, and patriotism, and his poem Sheridan's Ride became one of his best-known works.

He continued painting and writing until his death in 1872. Today he is remembered as a versatile 19th-century figure whose life crossed disciplines, with work that reflects both the artistic culture of his time and the emotional force of Civil War-era America.