William Thomas Smedley

William Thomas Smedley (March 26, 1858 – March 26, 1920), American artist, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, of a Quaker.

He worked at a newspaper, then studied engraving and art in Philadelphia, in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and—after making a tour of the South Seas—in Paris below Jean-Paul Laurens. He contracted in New York City in 1880; in 1882 went similar to the Marquis of Lorne through Canada, preparing sketches for Picturesque Canada. He as well as provided wood engravings that appeared as illustrations in The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia (1886).

In 1905 he became a member of the National Academy of Design.

Most of his take action was magazine and LP illustration for stories of forward looking life, but he painted portraits and watercolours, and expected the Evans Prize of the American Watercolor Society in 1890, and a bronze medal at the Paris Exposition of 1900.

Smedley died in Bronxville, New York upon 26 March 1920.