D. C. Johnston

• Born 1799-03-25 · Died 1865-10-08

David Claypoole Johnston was a 19th-century American cartoonist, printmaker, painter, and actor. In 1815, Johnston, who apprenticed with Philadelphia engraver Francis Kearney, began engraving original caricatures, but they were too controversial for publishing. In 1821, he switched to theatre, performing for five seasons with theatre companies in Philadelphia and Boston. Afterward, he retired from the stage and set up an engraver's office in Boston. His most important early work was a series of etched and lithographed character portraits of well-known American and British actors. In the years between 1829 and 1849, he published nine numbers of his annual comic Scraps, made of four plates, each containing nine or ten separate humorous sketches.