William Humphrys
William Humphrys (1794 – 21 January 1865) was an engraver of pictures, book illustrations and postage stamps. Humphrys was born in Dublin. At an early age he moved to the United States where he studied engraving techniques under George Murray in Philadelphia. He began his career as engraver in 1815 and was involved in the engraving of vignettes for bank notes and engravings for book illustrations. The illustrations in the books by poets Bryant and Longfellow were the work of Humphrys. He moved to England in 1823 where he worked on book illustrations for individual publishers. He then returned to the United States in 1843. Two years later he moved to Dublin to engrave "The Reading Magdalene" for the Royal Irish Art Union. Melville states that he did the engraving for the United States stamp with the portrait of Washington. The Art of the Print webpage seems to put the engraving of the stamp before 1823. In the book by Fielding there is an undated reference to a book illustration by Humphrys called "Early days of Washington". In a report in The New York Times of 18 June 1922 A Hatfield Jr is quoted from his book "There are indications