Artist, Painter, Editor, Designer, and Teacher. He will be best remembered for being the founder of the Art Students League of New York, and for being a member of several other important institutes, which led him to be among America's most respected teachers of art during the later nineteenth century. He is also best remembered for his artwork, "The Pick Of The Orchard," "Jack's Return," "Ingratitude," "Left In Charge," and "Sunny Italy." He was born one of ten children as Lemuel Everett Wilmarth to Benoni Wilmarth (1793-1844), and his wife Fanny Fuller Wilmarth (1796-1876), in Attleboro, Massachusetts, on November 11, 1835. He was raised with his family in Boston, Massachusetts, and where he was also educated in the common public schools. He later learned the trade of watchmaking while attending and drawing at night at the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He then went to Europe in 1858, and attended and studied at the prestigious Royal Academy in Munich, Germany, from 1859 to 1863, under the noted German painter, muralist, and book illustrator, Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1805-1874), and at the prestigious Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Paris, France, from 1864 to 1867, under the noted French painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). He also became an art professor involved in schools and other prominent institutes first beginning his teaching career at the Brooklyn Academy of Design in Brooklyn, New York, in 1867. He was then asked to head and eventually became the first Professor of Art and Director of the National Academy of Design in Manhattan, New York, between 1870 to 1890. During this time, he was crucial to the development of a structured curriculum involving progressive ideas including for women. He was also a founder of the Art Students League of New York, and was a Member of the National Academy of Design. He became an associate of the National Academy of Design and was offered a teaching position as a Professor of Art at the prestigious Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1871, but he declined the offer to stay with the National Academy of Design, and he was elected an academician to the National Academy of Design in May of 1873. He was also prominent as a worker in the Swedenborgian denomination, and was a member of the Swedenborgian Church of the New Jerusalem. He had written considerably on religious and social subjects, and was one of the founders of the New Earth, a Swedenborgian publication, in 1872, and was afterward its editor for several years. Besides, his many notable works of art including, "Pick Of The Orchard," "Jack's Return," "Ingratitude," "Left In Charge," and "Sunny Italy," he was also a great influence and taught the likes of Thomas Pollock Anshutz (1851-1912), William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), James Carroll Beckwith (1852-1917), Frederick Stuart Church (1842-1924), Louise Howland King Cox (1865-1945), Mary Ann Xantippe "Tip" Saunders (1838-1922), and Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849-1921), among many others. His work, "Left In Charge," was part of the National Academy of Design's 49th Annual Exhibition in 1874. The National Academy of Design was not guaranteed to open the following year and he helped found the Art Students League of New York. He hosted a few meetings and offered to teach some classes for free until he could be paid at a later date. He became President of the Art Students League of New York until 1877, but when the National Academy of Design reopened shortly thereafter, he returned to his position at the academy. He was elected a valuable Member of the National Academy of Design Council in 1892, until his ill health forced him to retire in 1893. He wrote the article, "Essentials Of An Art School," for the catalogue of the 69th Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, in which he stated, "… education of the eye and training of the hand are the distinctive functions of art schools. ...It is essential in the evolution of any vital, soul-stirring art, that no instruction should discourage, no curriculum of study should retard, no charm of mere handling should supersede the fullest, freest development of the soul-activities of individual artists." His eyesight began to fail him in 1894, and his paintings and other activities began to cease. His impressive wealth led him to be able to purchase his home, "Sunny Crest," near Marlboro, Massachusetts, on the Hudson River. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the house and many of his paintings while he was at another one of his residences, 352 Adelphi Street in Brooklyn, New York. He passed away from old age in Brooklyn, New York, on July 27, 1918, at the age of 82. Following his death, he was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. He was married to Emma Belina Barrett Wilmarth (1833-1895), from 1872 until her death on March 8, 1895, at the age of 62. The couple had no children together. On an interesting note, he and his wife owned a giant Newfoundland dog named Gipsy. The couple did not have children and were close with the dog, such that upon his death at the age of 23, the couple requested he be buried in their plot in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. They had a casket made, with Gipsy's name on a silver plate, and held a funeral for the dog, with a hearse and carriages. According to The New York Times, "the body was laid out in orthodox style, and had its front limbs placed in position, as if begging, and tied up with white satin ribbon." He was quoted as saying, "No one could help loving Gipsy ... 'None knew her but to love her. None named her but to praise.' Why, I assure you she was almost human, and we miss her dreadfully." News of Gipsy's death was covered in several newspapers, including a story in which Gipsy saved Mrs. Wilmarth from drowning some years before his death. The news inspired Henry Bergh, founder of the ASPCA, to write a poem for Gipsy. The Wilmarths had plans to have a headstone erected, but it did not happen in their lifetime. In 2007, the ASPCA added a plaque bearing the full text of Bergh's poem on Wilmarth's plot, dedicated in a ceremony attended by Newfoundland dogs from local rescues. His grand-niece was Alice Wilmarth Thompson Busing (1898-1973), a painter in oils, watercolor, and pastels, who he was also a great influence too.