Born on September 15, 1846, Lloyd Mifflin was described as the "artistic squire" of Columbia whose paintings brought thousands of dollars following his death, but his poetry earned him the title of the "world's greatest sonneteer."

Mifflin's father, John Houston Mifflin, dabbled in paintings and poetry and while they were not rich they were quite well off and Lloyd never had to earn a living.

As a boy he was privately tutored and his father became his first art teacher, but when he was 23 he studied in Philadelphia with Thomas Moran, who later became famous for his paintings of western landscapes.

Mifflin exhibited his work publicly for the first time in 1869 when the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts hung his painting "Autumn Sonata."

As a young man Lloyd had dreams of fame and, after his Philadelphia studies, he went on to study and travel in Europe where he became a student of Dusseldorf's painter-teacher, Herman Herzog. Under Herzog's direction, Lloyd refined his craft as he studied the latest trends in European art.

Mifflin returned to the United States and Columbia where his main subject was the Susquehanna River, a stone's throw from his birthplace, and the surrounding countryside.

Although well trained and talented as an artist, Mifflin turned to poetry and published a series of volumes ranging from "Ventures in Verse" in the 1870's to "As Twilight Falls" in 1916.

And it was poetry that brought him the attention his paintings never did, but it's been said it was the attention of critics and not readers.

He suffered a severe heart attack in 1892, a stroke in 1916 left him paralyzed, and he died five years later on July 16, 1921.

Mifflin apparently did not understand the ways of the art market and never sold any significant number of paintings during his lifetime so he gave some to relatives and friends.

His brother, Dr. Houston Mifflin, sold some of Mifflin's paintings after his death but the bulk of Mifflin's work remained at Norwood, the family summer home outside of Columbia, and later they were acquired by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in Harrisburg. Franklin and Marshall College, in Lancaster, also has a collection of his drawings and manuscripts.

Unfortunately both agencies kept the paintings and manuscripts "under wraps" for years never allowing them to be shown publicly until 1996 when many of his works were turned over to the Columbia Historic Preservation Society for a special ten-day exhibit in the Columbia Museum of History.

Books By Lloyd Mifflin