William Baxter Palmer Closson is an American artist born in Thetford, Vermont

Thetford, Vermont

Thetford is a town in Orange County, Vermont, United States in the Connecticut River Valley. The population was 2,617 at the 2000 census. Villages within the town include East Thetford, North Thetford, Thetford Hill, Thetford Center, Rices Mills and Post Mills. The town office is in Thetford...

. As a young adult, he was educated at Thetford Academy

Thetford Academy

Thetford Academy is a historic independent school in Thetford, Vermont. It is the state's oldest secondary school.The co-educational school was founded in February 1819 by local citizens and was granted a charter by the legislature in October of the that same year...

 before graduating and working as a clerk in a railroad office.

Soon, he moved to Boston, MA and worked as an apprentice wood engraver with Samuel S. Kilburn. He studied drawing at the Lowell Institute

Lowell Institute

The Lowell Institute is an educational foundation in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., providing for free public lectures, and endowed by the bequest of $250,000 left by John Lowell, Jr., who died in 1836. Under the terms of his will 10% of the net income was to be added to the principal, which in...

, then went on to work for Harper's Magazine

Harper's Magazine

Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...

http://www.harpers.org/subjects/WilliamBaxterPalmerClosson/ArtistIllustratorOf/ArtIllustration and various publishing houses in Boston. While in Boston, he shared a studio with painter George Fuller.http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?StartRow=1&ID=920

Seventeen of his paintings are in the American Art collection at the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

. http://americanart.si.edu/search/search_artworks1.cfm?StartRow=1&ConID=920&format=short He also has works on display at the Wadsworth Atheneum

Wadsworth Atheneum

The Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public art museum in the United States, with significant holdings of French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School landscapes, modernist masterpieces and contemporary works, as well as extensive holdings in early American furniture and...

 in Hartford and the Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000...

.http://www.clevelandart.org/Explore/artist.asp?artistLetter=C&recNo=182

He married Grace Worden Gallaudet Kendall, daughter of Dr. Edward Miner Gallaudet

Edward Miner Gallaudet

Edward Miner Gallaudet , son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Sophia Fowler Gallaudet, was a famous early educator of the deaf in Washington, DC...

, president of Gallaudet College in Washington DC.

He died on May 30, 1926 in Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...

 and is buried in the Gallaudet plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery.