The first meeting of the New York Etchers Club took place in the studio of
James David Smillie on May 2, 1877. Other important members of the New York Etching Club included
Charles Adams Platt,
Thomas Moran,
Samuel Colman,
Kruseman Van Elten,
William Merritt Chase,
Frederick Stuart Church,
Stephen Parrish,
Joseph Pennell, J. C. Nicoll,
Charles Frederick William Mielatz,
Walter Satterlee, and
Thomas Waterman Wood. For most members, etching was an important side-interest to their main occupation as painters. That was not the case, however, for
Edith Loring Getchell and
Mary Nimmo Moran, two other artists of note who were both primarily etchers. The New York Etching Club held regular exhibitions through the early 1890s in which members and invited guests displayed their etchings for sale to the general public. From 1879 to 1881, works by members of the New York Etching Club were also featured in a periodical called
The American Art Review. Published under the leadership of
Sylvester Rosa Koehler, the first curator of prints at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, it further popularized etching as a medium and the New York Etching Club as a professional organization. The success of the New York Etching Club helped spawn similar organizations in other major American cities in the late 19th century. == See also ==