biography of John MURDOCK (1835-1924)

Death place: Baltimore

Addresses: Active in St. Louis, MO, 1854; San Francisco, CA, 1856; Baltimore, MD, from c. 1862

Profession: Portrait and landscape painter, architect and civil engineer

Exhibited: PAFA (1862: he and Thomas W. Richards of Philadelphia, exhibited a view of interior of St. James R.C. Church, Baltimore)

Work: Md. Hist. Soc. owns two watercolor drawings by him, one showing a proposed bridge (1867) and the other a Baltimore residence (1868)

Comments: Began as a portrait painter in St. Louis and San Francisco. In 1862 he was teamed with architect and painter Thomas W. Richards (either in Baltimore or Philadelphia) creating views of buildings. After the Civil War Murdock and Major N.H. Hutton formed an architectural and civil engineering firm in Baltimore (MD). They designed buildings and worked on railroad, lighthouse, and other engineering projects in Maryland and nearby states.

Sources: G&W; G&W originally had separate entries for John Murdoch (architect and civil engineer) and John Murdock (portrait painter in St. Louis and San Francisco); Hughes, in Artists in California, corrects this and posits them as one person, John Murdock. See also St. Louis BD 1854; San Francisco BD 1856; Peters, California on Stone; Maryland History Notes, VI (Nov. 1948); Rutledge, PA; Peggy and Harold Samuels, 348-49.