HILL, Thomas, artist, born in Birmingham, England, 11 September, 1829. He came to the United States in 1840, and settled in Taunton, Massachusetts His earliest paintings were made in Boston, where he followed the profession of ornamental painting until 1853, when he removed to Philadelphia, where he studied in the life-class at the academy. In 1861 he went to California in impaired health, and painted portraits, also occasional figure-pieces. One of the latter, the trial scene in the "Merchant of Venice," gained for him the first prize in the Art union of San Francisco in 1865. During 1866 he studied art in Paris for six months under Paul Meyerheim, and thenceforth determined to follow landscape instead of figure painting. He opened a studio in Boston in 1867, but returned soon to San Francisco, where he now resides (1887), although spending a portion of each year in the Yosemite valley, and at his studio in Mariposa county. His principal works are "The Yosemite Valley" (1867); "The White Mountain Notch," "Donner Lake," "The Great Cation of the Sierras," "The Heart of the Sierras," "The Driving of the Last Spike," and "The Yellowstone Cation."