John Binns (December 22, 1772 - June 16, 1860) was an Irish-American journalist, engraver, radical politician, and publisher. Binns was born in Dublin, Ireland to a wealthy ironmonger, also John Binns. His father died when he was young, and his mother remarried the lawyer George McEntegarte - who proved abusive to both John and his brother Benjamin (1771 - c. 1857). The brothers fled to their grandfather's home in Dublin, where they attended the Sisson Putland Darling's (1737 - 1817) school. John was later apprenticed as a chandler and soaper. As a young man he relocated with his brother Benjamin Binns, to London where they became political radicals with the London Corresponding Society. John, a gifted public speaker, became chairmen of that organization's general committee in 1795. He traveled throughout England preaching Paineite Radicalism and violent revolution. His political leanings caused him to be arrested and imprisoned several times. The ground getting too hot for them in London 1801, the brothers immigrated to the United States, settling in Baltimore. There they joined the deist New York Society of Theophilanthropists, which advocated a freethinking, democratic, republican society. In 1802, he founded a radical left newspaper, the Republican Argus in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. Later, from 1807 to 1829, he published the Philadelphia Democratic Press, then Pennsylvania's leading Democratic newspaper. His political beliefs in included the territorial annexation of Canada and global American imperialism - with the idea being to forcibly spread democracy. Binns is best known for his 1819 issue of a highly decorative ceremonial broadside of the Declaration of Independence. He also published an autobiography in 1854 and died in Philadelphia in 1857. More by this mapmaker...

John Vallance (1770 - June 14, 1823) was a Philadelphia based engraver active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Vallance was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Some scholars claim he apprenticed under Philadelphia engraver James Trenchard, but the dates don't work, as Vallance moved to the United States at 21, already an master engraver. At 21, in the year 1791, Vallance moved to Philadelphia and immediately partnered with James Thacakara, his wife's (a Trenchard?) uncle, establishing the imprint of Thackara and Vallance. The firm completed numerous significant cartographic projects, including maps for Andrew Ellicott, John Melish, Henry S. Tanner, and Reading Howell. Vallance later partnered with Henry Schenck Tanner (1786 - May 18, 1858) and Francis Kearney, forming Vallance, Kearney and Co. Vallance, working with Thackara, produced some of the most important early maps of Washington D.C., engraved early Continental Currencies, and worked on Dobson's Encyclopedia. In addition to his cartographic work, Vallance was also one of the founding members of the Philadelphia based Association of Artists in America. Learn More...

James Barton Longacre (August 11, 1794 - January 1, 1869) was an American portraitist and engraver. He was born on a farm in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, the descendent of the early Swedish settler to that region. At 12, Longacre moved to Philadelphia, apprenticing himself at John E. Watson's bookstore. He was nonetheless more inclined towards the arts, and so in 1813, he transferred his apprenticeship to George Murray, principal in the engraving firm Murray, Draper, Fairman and Co. at 47 Sansom Street, Philadelphia. He started his own engraving business in 1819 at 230 Pine Street - his first project being John Binns' spectacular 'Declaration of Independence' broadside where he engraved portraits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Hancock. Although regarded as the 'finest engraver in the United States', his business lagged during the Panic 1837, and he was forced into insolvency. For a time he traveled the Midwest as an itinerant bookseller, but in 1844, returned to Philadelphia where he became the 4th chief engraver of the Philadelphia Mint. There he made his mark as the designer of both the Flying Eagle Cent and the Indian Head Cent. He left the position of Chief Engraver in 1851, but remained active designing coinage for the rest of his career. He died suddenly at his home in Philadelphia on January 1, 1869. Learn More...