SMILLIE, James (smi-ly), engraver, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, 23 November, 1807 ; died in Poughkeepsie, New York, 4 December, 1885. He was at first apprenticed to James Johnston, a silver-engraver, after whose death, ten months later, he worked for a time with an engraver of pictures, Edward Mitchel. In 1821 he came with his family to Canada, settling in Quebec, where his father and eldest brother established themselves as jewelers. Young Smillie worked with them for some time as a general engraver, until Lord Dalhousie, struck with his evident talent, gave him free passage to London and letters of introduction in 1827. This did not prove of much assistance to the young artist, as the London engravers, regarding him as the governor's protege, asked most exorbitant premiums. Smillie thereupon went to Edinburgh, where he worked for about five months, after which he returned to Quebec. He went in 1829 to New York, where he settled permanently in the following year. His engraving after Robert W. Weir's "Convent Gate" first brought him into notice, and during 1832-'6 he engraved a series of plates, mostly after paintings by Weir, for the New York "Mirror." In 1832 he was elected an associate of the National academy, and he became an academician in 1851. From the first his name became connected with the art of bank-note engraving, and he has been called the pioneer in this line. From 1861 till his death his time was devoted to that branch of engraving. He is best known, however, as a landscape-engraver, in which branch of art he probably had no equal in this country. Among his more important plates, all executed in the line manner, are "Dream of Arcadia," after Cole, and "Dover Plains," after Asher B. Durand (1850), and "Mount Washington," after John P. Kensett, and "American Harvesting," after Jasper F. Cropsey (1851)--all engraved for the American art union; the series "The Voyage of Life," after Thomas Cole (1853-'4), and "The Rocky Mountains," after Albert Bierstadt (1865-'6).--His brother, William Cumming, engraver, born in Edinburgh, 23 September. l813, emigrated with his parents to Canada in 1821. He first worked at silver-engraving, but, after coming to New York in 1830, soon turned his attention to bank-note engraving. He was connected as partner with several firms, the last of which, Edmonds, , Jones and Smillie, was eventually absorbed by the American bank-note company. In 1866 he established a bank-note engraving company at Ottawa, Canada, having secured a contract to furnish the Canadian government with all its paper currency, bonds, etc. In 1874 he retired from this business, but eight years later he again established a company in Canada. In this business he is still (1888) engaged.--James's son, James David, artist, born in New York city, 16 January, 1833, was educated by his father as an engraver on steel. He produced some excellent work, notably the illustrations for Cooper's novels after Felix O. C. Darley's designs, but his principal work was on bank-note vignettes. In 1864, after his first visit to Europe, he turned his attention to painting, studying without a master. The same year he first exhibited at the Academy of design, New York, and was elected an associate of the academy in 1865, and an academician in 1876. His work" in oil includes "The Lifting of the Clouds, White Mountains" (1868);.... Dark against Day's Golden Death, Catskills" (1870) ; " Evening among the Sierras" (1876) ; "The Adirondacks" and " Up the Hill '" (1879) ; and "The Cliffs of Normandy" (1885). He was one of the original members of the Water-color society, and was its treasurer from 1866 till 1873, and president from 1873 till 1878. Among his water-colors are "The Track of the Torrent, Adirondacks" (1869); " A Scrub Race, California" (1876) ; "Old Cedars, Coast of Maine" (1880).; "Stray Lambs, near Mont-rose, Pennsylvania" (1884); "Etretal, Coast of France" (1887); and "The Passing Herd" (1888). Mr. Smillie is also well known as an etcher, and was one of the founders of the New York etching club. His pencil has been frequently employed in book illustration, and he is the author as well as illustrator of the "Yosemite" article in "Picturesque America."--Another son, William Main, born in New York, 23 November, 1835; died there, 21 January, 1888, was known as an expert letter engraver. He was in the employ of a firm until merged, with seven other companies, into the old American bank-note company in 1857. He remained with the company until it was combined with two others to form the present company, after which he was general manager until his death.--Another son, George Henry, artist, born in New York, 29 December, 1840, studied under his father and James M. Hart in 1861-'3. In 1.871 he visited the Yosemite valley, and in 1884 he went abroad. He was elected an associate of the National academy in 1864, and an academician in 1882, and is also a member of the Water-color society. Among his works in oil are "A Lake in the Woods " (1872) ; "A Florida Lagoon" (1875); "A Goat Pasture "(1879) ; "Merrimack River" (1882); " On the Massachusetts Coast" (1883) ; "Summer Morning on Long Island" (1884); and "Light and Shadow along Shore," which is owned by the Union league club, Philadelphia. His water-colors include " Under the Pines of the Yosemite" (1872); "Near Portland, Maine" (1881) ; "Swamp Willows at Newburyport " (1883); and "September on the New England Coast" (1885), which gained a prize at the American art association's water-color exhibition in 1885.--George Henry's wife, Nellie Sheldon Jacobs, artist, born in New York, 14 September, 1854, studied under Joseph O. Eaton and James D. Smillie. Her works include "Grandmother's Old Love Letters" (1881), and "When the Dew is on the Grass " (1884), in oil ; and "Priscilla" (1880) : "Forgotten Strain" (1881) ; and "Family Choir" (1882), in water-color. She is a member of the Water-color society.