Nathaniel Hurd

Nathaniel Hurd (13 February 1730 – 17 December 1777) is recognized as the first American engraver and a silversmith in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 18th century. He engraved "bookplates ... heraldic devices, seals, ... paper currency, and business cards" along with die engravers and engravers on copper. Early life and family Hurd's grandfather had come from England and settled in Charlestown. He died in 1749 at the age of 70. Hurd's father was Jacob Hurd, a leading Boston silversmith, whose works are in the collections of the Peabody Essex Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Strawbery Banke Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Jacob Hurd married a daughter of John Mason (of Kingston, Jamaica who died in 1758). Career An obituary from Amos Doolittle noted Hurd was the first to have engraved copper in the USA.