Researching Henry Meyer

His original career was as a wheelwright, but he lost an arm near Spottsylvania during the American Civil War. (He was a corporal in the Centre County Regiment, the 148th Pennsylvania Infantry.) In the war he began the diary he would keep the rest of his life, and after the war spent time as a teacher, county superintendent, state representative and justice of the peace during the 58 years he spent in Rebersburg. He was a teacher of the poet Calvin Ziegler and was active in community organizations. While his collected poems have apparently yet to be published, at least one ("For Was Er So Freundlich Is") was published in The Millheim Journal of 14 August 1907.

Henry Meyer (12 June 1780 - 28 May 1847) was an English portrait painter, more known as a stipple and mezzotint engraver.

Meyer was born John Meyer in London - a son of John Meyer and Anna Torade Hoppner who married at St James Westminster 22 December 1767. Contrary to other accounts Henry Meyer's father was a hairdresser and not an engraver. Joseph Farington recorded that Henry Meyer was a nephew of John Hoppner, referring to him as 'Mier' (8 February 1810), and in the obituary of Meyer in Gentleman's Magazine (1847 ii 665).

A prominent early 19th-century artist, Henry Meyer was admitted as a pupil to Christ's Hospital, London in 1791 where he studied under Benjamin Green. On 25 August 1794 he was apprenticed to Benjamin Smith for seven years and ultimately trained in engraving techniques at the Royal Academy Schools under Francesco Bartolozzi.

His first published engravings appeared in the early 19th century attributed to J. H. Meyer, he later dropped the J and most of his works were published under the name Henry Meyer or H. Meyer. In the ensuing years he showed his skill at portraits and decorative subjects. He produced engravings of such notables as Lady Hamilton, Admiral Nelson, Sir John Nicholl, Lord Hawkesbury, Lord Byron, and Giuseppe Ambrogetti. His painting of Charles Lamb was hung in the India Office for many years. He was a founding member of the Society of British Artists, exhibiting many of his works with this association between 1824 and 1830, and acting as its president in 1828/9.