If James A. M. Whistler stands in the top rank of American painters, he was, and remains, a giant among 19th Century American artists in etchings and lithographs. For a half-century, he set the standard for the graphic arts with a singularly brilliant body of work. Some even have the tonal atmospheric quality of his paintings; others are distinguished by the precision of his drawing.

Whistler's graphic work remains among the most influential of the 19th Century; so important that an entire room at the Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915 was devoted solely to his works and those of his well-known protégé, Joseph Pennell.