George Hewitt Cushman was a top American engraver and painter of miniature paintings and portraits of his time. He turned early to these professions after family financial misfortunes prevented him from entering West Point and becoming a soldier.
He studied drawing under Washington Allston and line engraving with Asaph Willard and Seth and John Cheney.
In 1843 he moved to Philadelphia and resided there for twenty years, appearing in the city's directory as a miniature painting and portrait painter. In 1849 he married Susan Wetherill. While in Philadelphia he engraved printing plates for many books, including James Fenimore Cooper's novels' thirty-four volumes, the household edition of Charles Dickens, and Frances S. Osgood's Poems, and portraits including Young America in the Alps, Forrest in William Rounseville Alger's Life of Edwin Forrest, and a portrait of Lord Byron entitled inter alia.
He primarily engraved notes for state banks until the creation of the National Banking Act and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington D.C. caused him to retire from this work.