Sala Bosworth Photograph

This photograph shows Ohio artist Sala Bosworth at the age of 82. Bosworth was well known, particularly in southeast Ohio, for his portraits, landscapes, and historical paintings. The photograph measures 6.5 by 8.75 inches (16.51 by 22.23 cm). It was taken by the Marceau Imperial Portrait Company, located on West 4th Street in Cincinnati. Sala Bosworth (1805-1890) was born in Massachusetts. His family moved to a Marietta, Ohio farm in 1816. After receiving some training at Philadelphia's Academy of Fine Arts, Bosworth returned to Ohio and began a career as an itinerant painter, traveling throughout southeast Ohio to find work. In the 1830s, he abandoned his itinerant life and settled in Marietta, where he pursued a business career. Bosworth continued to paint, and also held several civic jobs, including auditor of Washington County from 1844 until 1852 and postmaster of Marietta from 1861 until 1870. In the early 1880s, he and his wife Joanna Shipman Bosworth left Marietta to live in Cincinnati with their daughter Frances (Fanny) and her husband, Ephraim Cutler Dawes. Bosworth died in Cincinnati in 1890.