William Closson

• Name — William Closson • Birth Name — William Baxter Palmer Closson • Born — 13 October 1848 Thetford, Vermont, United States • Died — 30 May 1926 • Place of death — Hartford, Connecticut, United States • Field — painting, wood engravings

He was born in Thetford, Vermont, on October 13, 1848. His father David served as a Vermont legislator and his mother Abigail was a descendant of the painter Benjamin West. As a young adult, he was educated at Thetford Academy before graduating and working as a clerk in a railroad office. Soon, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and worked as an apprentice wood engraver with Samuel Smith Kilburn. He studied drawing at the Lowell Institute, then went on to work for Harper's Magazine and various publishing houses in Boston. While in Boston, he shared a studio with painter George Fuller. Seventeen of his paintings are in the American Art collection at the Smithsonian Institution. He also has works on display at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford and the Cleveland Museum of Art. He married Grace Worden Gallaudet Kendall, daughter of Dr. Edward Miner Gallaudet, president of Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C. He died on May 30, 1926, in Hartford, Connecticut, and is buried in the Gallaudet plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery.

He also worked under the name Closson?, William Baxter Palmer. The authorities additionally record the headings William Baxter Closson, William B. Closson and William Baxter Palmer Closson.