Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn

Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn (October 13, 1866 – December 21, 1965) was an American artist and adventurer. Deaf from the age of five, Washburn had a varied career, including creating paintings and etchings and serving as a war correspondent in the Russo-Japanese War, Mexican Revolution, and World War I. He was also an accomplished naturalist, writing on the intelligence of insects and spiders as well as serving on an expedition collecting bird eggs. Early life and education Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn was born October 13, 1866, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was born into a wealthy family, the son of William Drew Washburn and the grandson of Israel and Martha Washburn. He became deaf at age five after contracting scarlet fever and spinal meningitis. He was a student at the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf and graduated in 1884. Washburn attended Gallaudet College, graduating as the class valedictorian with a Bachelors of Arts degree in 1890. While he originally planned on studying natural science and entomology, writing essays with his own illustrations of spiders, bees, and caterpillars, he discovered a love for drawing at Gallaudet. He went on to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1893.