The Biographical Dictionary of America/Armstrong, David Maitland

ARMSTRONG, David Maitland, artist, was born at Newburg, N.Y., in 1837. He was graduated at Trinity college, Hartford, in 1858; studied law, engaged in practice, and subsequently opened a studio in New York city. He studied genre and decorative painting under Luc Oliver Merson, and other eminent artists in Rome and Paris; was U.S. consul-general to Italy for four years, and director of the American art department at the Paris Exposition in 1878, where he received the decoration of the Legion of Honor. He reopened his studio in New York city and became a member of the Society of American Artists and of the Architectural League.