The founding of the New York Etching Club in 1877 formalized the late-nineteenth century phenomenon known as the “etching revival” in the United States. Historically a medium used for reproductive printmaking, by the 1870s painters were using etching to make sensitive, original works of art. Etchings, which could be made using tools found at home, became extremely popular among artists and collectors. Expatriate American pioneers of etching, such as James McNeill Whistler and Mary Cassatt, were joined by those at home, including Mary Nimmo Moran and her husband Thomas, Frank Duveneck, Frederick Childe Hassam, Joseph Pennell, and Julian Alden Weir.

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