Samuel Smith Kilburn was an engraver

Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...

 in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, in the 19th-century. He trained with Abel Bowen

Abel Bowen

Abel Bowen was an engraver, publisher, and author in early 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts.-Biography:Bowen was born in New York in 1790. Arriving in Boston in 1812, Bowen worked as a printer for the Columbian Museum, at the time under the proprietorship of Abel's uncle, Daniel Bowen. In 1814...

. Kilburn's work appeared in popular periodicals such as Gleason's Pictorial

Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion

Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion was a 19th-century illustrated periodical published in Boston, Massachusetts. The magazine was founded by Frederick Gleason in 1851. It became Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion in 1855, after managing editor Maturin Murray Ballou bought out the...

. His business partners included Richard P. Mallory (Kilburn & Mallory) and Henry C. Cross. For many years Kilburn worked at 96 Washington Street

Washington Street (Boston)

Washington Street is a street originating in downtown Boston, Massachusetts that extends southwestward to the Massachusetts-Rhode Island state line. The majority of it was built as the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike in the early nineteenth century...

 in Boston (ca.1852-1871); he lived in Newton, Massachusetts

Newton, Massachusetts

Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...

.

Works by Kilburn

• S.S. Kilburn. Specimens of designing and engraving on wood. Boston: ca.1865-1867.

Works with engraving by Kilburn

• My teacher's gem. Boston: Lee & Shepard
  Lee & Shepard
  Lee & Shepard was a publishing and bookselling firm in Boston, Massachusetts in the 19th century, established by William Lee and Charles Augustus Billings Shepard Authors published by the firm included: George Melville Baker; Sophie May; Henry Morgan; Oliver Optic; William Carey Richards;...
  
  , 1863
• Oliver Optic
  William Taylor Adams
  William Taylor Adams , pseudonym Oliver Optic, was a noted academic, author, and Massachusetts state legislator. He was born in Medway, Massachusetts in 1822 to Captain Laban Adams and Catherine Johnson Adams....
  
  's Magazine
• Our Young Folks

Works about Kilburn

• New England historical and genealogical register. 1904.

External links

• WorldCat
• Not Against Type, blog by Larry Thompson. Image of Thompson's 2009 impression of Kilburn's change of address woodblock. Nov. 25, 2009.
• http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=273890
• Boston Athenaeum has works by Kilburn.
• http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?419997
• http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?423923
• http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?834164
• http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?419872
• http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?420626