Samuel V. Chamberlain was born in Cresco, Iowa on October 28, 1895.
He was an accomplished etcher, lithographer, writer, teacher, and lecturer. Chamberlain taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lectured on various graphic techniques such as etching, dry point, and soft ground etching. His main residence was Marblehead, Massachusetts but, in 1929, his address was listed as Rue Jean Dolent; care of Guaranty Trust Co., 3rue des Italians, Paris, France and, in 1934, Senlis, France.
Chamberlain studied at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Royal College of Art in London. He was a pupil of Edouard Henri Léon (1873-?) in Paris and Malcolm Osborne (1880-1963) in London. Chamberlain was a member of the National Academy of Design in New York City; the Society of American Etchers in Brooklyn, New York; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Chicago Society of Etchers; Associate member of the National Academy of Design, 1939; the Northwest Printmakers; the Société de la Gravure Original Noir in Paris; and a Guggenheim Fellow, 1926.
Exhibitions and awards include an honorable mention at the Paris Salon in 1925; Medaille de Bronze at the Paris Salon in1925; a gold medal at the Boston Tercentenary in 1930; a prize at the Society of American Etchers in 1933; the National Academy of Design, annually; and the Salons of America. Chamberlain was the author and illustrator of "France Will Live Again," 1940; "Fair is Our Land," 1942;"Sketches of Northern Spanish Architecture," 1928; "Domestic Architecture in Rural France," 1928; "Tudor Homes of England,"1929; "Through France with a Sketch Book," 1929; and French Provincial Houses," 1932.
Samuel Chamberlain died in Marblehead, Massachusetts in January of 1975.
Collections representing Chamberlain include the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, Massachusetts; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, Massachusetts; the Victoria and Albert Museum in England; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Mobile Museum of Art in Mobile, Alabama; the San Diego Museum of Art in California; the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida; the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia; the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts; the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan; the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri; the Art Gallery, University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire; and the Sheldon Swope Art Museum in Terra Haute, Indiana.
Side note: We were contacted by Sarah Goldsmith of Massachusetts. She believes her father; Dick Walsh took this picture. Dick was Sam's neighbor and in the Marblehead Camera Club with him. Dick said he used to just sit and watch Sam etching and engraving when Sam's eyesight was still sharp. He was fascinated how Sam could draw the picture backwards and even write text backwards.