William Dunlap (1766-1839)
of New York City; Producer, Playwright & Pioneer of American Theater
He was born at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, the son of Samuel and Margaret (Sargent) Dunlap. His Northern Irish father was a Lieutenant in the British Army, wounded at Quebec, who became a successful import merchant in New York City. Despite having lost an eye in childhood, William was a natural artist and studied painting in London as a student of the celebrated portraitist Benjamin West. His portrait of George Washington hangs in the U.S. Senate. In 1787, he returned to New York and devoted himself to the theater while continuing to make a living from painting. He managed two of New York City's earliest and most prominent theaters, the John Street Theater (1796 to 1798) and the Park Theater (1798 to 1805). During his lifetime, Dunlap produced more than 60-plays and co-founded the National Academy of Design (1825). He was the author of the History of American Theatre (1832), but is best remembered as the author of the three-volume History of the Rise & Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States (1834), which is today considered a classic and an invaluable source of information on early American arts. In about 1788, he married Elizabeth Woolsey and through her counted the distinguished merchant Moses Rogers and the President of Yale, Timothy Dwight, among his brothers-in-law. They were the parent of two children.
