Training in the Workshop of Abner Reed.

Abner Reed of East Windsor, Connecticut, was a pioneer in the field of American engraving and many of his apprentices built successful commercial engraving establishments in the nineteenth century. The sequence and nature of work undertaken by the apprentice and a discussion of those young men who underwent an apprenticeship under Reed are the topic of this essay. Much of the material was taken from entries in the diary of one of these apprentices, John Warner Barber (1798-1885). Barber finished his apprenticeship and went on to have a distinguished career as an engraver, topographical draughtsman, and historian.