Originally from New York, the Pendleton brothers at the outset of their professional lives were affiliated with
Charles Willson Peale and
Rembrandt Peale in Philadelphia. On arrival in Boston, William Pendleton first worked as an engraver with
Abel Bowen. The Pendleton brothers began their own shop in 1825, when William "acquired some lithographic materials from a merchant named Thaxter who had brought them to Boston from Europe but who did not know how to use them. W.S. Pendleton communicated with his brother, then in Europe, about the matter, and the latter on his return not only brought back considerable stone and other materials, but also what was more important several men familiar with the process." The Pendletons became "the pioneers of the lithographic art in Boston." A number of artists worked for the Pendletons, including
Fitz Henry Lane,
John H. Bufford,
Seth Cheney,
Nathaniel Currier,
Thomas Edwards,
B.F. Nutting,
George Loring Brown,
Benjamin Champney,
Alexander Jackson Davis,
David Claypoole Johnston,
William Rimmer, and
John W. A. Scott. Also "associated with the Pendleton workshop: Mary Jane Derby (later Peabody), Eliza Ann Farrar, Eliza Goodridge, Orra White Hitchcock,
Louisa Davis Minot, Eliza Susan Quincy, Catherine Scollay, ... Margaret Snow (who married William S. Pendleton in 1831)," and probably
Sophia Peabody. In 1826 the brothers won "a silver medal for the best specimen of lithography" at the annual exhibition of the
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. In addition to critical praise, the studio's work garnered public approval. Of an 1832 portrait of
Andrew Jackson, painted by
Ralph E. W. Earl, and printed by Pendleton's, one newspaper notes: "We have received a lithographic engraving of Mr. Earle's picture of Gen. Jackson. ...The whole appears to be finely executed. The engraving is by Pendleton of Boston -- we have never seen any lithography equal to it." The studio occupied successive addresses in Boston: Harvard Place (1825-1826); Graphic Court (1826 - c. 1832); and finally
Washington Street (c. 1836). In 1828, John Pendleton left Boston. William continued on until "July 1836 when ... [he] sold out to his bookkeeper, Thomas Moore." According to one historian, after William's departure the staff and operations of the business he'd established remained in place—"for all practical purposes it was the Pendleton operation under a new name"—until 1840 "when Moore in turn sold out to
Benjamin W. Thayer." ==Images==