Edwin Weyburn Goodwin

Edwin Weyburn Goodwin (October 1800 – September 13, 1845) was itinerant miniature and portrait painter responsive in upstate New York, and dad of trompe-l'oeil painter Richard La Barre Goodwin.

Goodwin was born in Ovid, New York and lived in Dryden, Ludlowville, Auburn, Albany and Ithaca, New York. He was largely self-educated and twice married, first to Almira Ives after that to Almira LaBarre. Goodwin began his career as a merchant, but at age 29 took stirring painting which he vanguard studied in New York City under Anthony Lewis De Rose; his first exhibit was at the National Academy of Design in 1836. He was an ardent abolitionist and abstinence advocate, taking ownership of The Tocsin of Liberty, an anti-slavery newspaper in Albany, around 1842, and lecturing in New York welcome for emancipation. His 1837 lecture "Don't Bring it into the Church," caused him to be disciplined by his Methodist Episcopal Church of Auburn, New York. Goodwin painted some 800 portraits during his career, including those of anti-slavery activists President Martin Van Buren, William H. Seward (given to the city of Albany), DeWitt Clinton, James G. Birney, and Gerrit Smith of Albany. He died in Ithaca, New York and was interred at Asbury Cemetery in Lansing, New York. His put it on is collected in the Genesee Country Village and Museum and his papers archived in the Smithsonian Institution.