Sidney Lawton Smith

Smith was born in Foxborough, Massachusetts to Lawton and Lucy Thompson Smith on June 15, 1845. He was the third of three sons. In 1847, his family moved to Canton, Massachusetts, where he was educated in the public school system. Smith showed an interest and aptitude in artistic efforts from a young age, and in 1863, his parents sent him to apprentice to Reuben Carpenter in Boston to learn steel engraving. ==Designer and Engraver==

In 1865, Smith returned to Carpenter's engraving shop, but moved on to the shop of Joseph Andrews in 1867. There, he worked on reproductions of the original etchings and woodcuts that had been issued in England with an edition of Dickens's works During this period, Smith worked primarily as an etcher and engraver, and a designer of bookplates. Smith's bookplate clients included notable book and engravings collectors, college and public libraries, historical and research societies, publishing houses, bookstores, and collector's clubs. ==Personal life==

Smith married Sarah Jane Groves on October 13, 1867, and moved with his family to Canton. He and his wife had children, including a daughter, Amy Gertrude Smith, who later wrote a memoir of Sidney Lawton Smith. He and his family moved back to Boston in 1893. ==Death and legacy==

Smith died in 1929. The American Antiquarian Society holds his papers and other materials, including several bookplate drawings and engravings, copper bookplates, photographs, and his engraving tools. Bookplates Collections of bookplates designed, etched, and engraved by Sidney Lawton Smith are held in the Lewis Stark Bookplate Collection at the University of New Hampshire, and the William Augustus Brewer Bookplate Collection at the University of Delaware. File:Sidney Lawton Smith Bookplate-Public Library.jpg|Bookplate for a public library File:Sidney Lawton Smith Bookplate-Harvard College Library.jpg|Bookplate for the Harvard College Library File:Sidney Lawton Smith Bookplate-Sallie W Hovey.jpg|Bookplate for a patron named Sallie W. Hovey File:Sidney Lawton Smith Bookplate-Library MMA.jpg|Bookplate for the Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art File:Sidney Lawton Smith Bookplate-Bolton Public Library.jpg|Bookplate for the Boston Public Library File:Sidney Lawton Smith Bookplate-Bangor Public Library.jpg|Bookplate for the Bangor Public Library ==References==