Born Oct 23 1838 in Baltimore, Smith is mainly known as the engineer that built the foundation for the Statue of Liberty. But he was also an accomplished artist producing many fine watercolours, including many of Venice or Istanbul.

Born 18 Oct 1906 in St Louis, Brooks was a contemporary and friend of Jackson Pollock, working as an abstract expressionist after serving in the military as an artist in northern Africa. He was among the first artists to use staining, creating “painterly accidents” with buried personal meanings.

Born Oct 6 1920 in Brooklyn, Krisel drew weather maps for the allied forces in WW2. From there he progressed to architecture and abstract art. A prolific painter and sculptor, he also produced silkscreens and lithographs such as: Prisme

Born Oct 4 1933 in Baltimore, Nesbitt had the great job of being official artist for some of the Apollo missions. But he disliked being classified as a photorealist, indeed some of his last works, in the “impossible series” definitely qualify as surreal.

Born Oct 3, 1910 in Wahington, Hawley specialised in pictures of rural buildings and and aspects of small-town industry in the US. He painted occasionally in gouache but specialised in watercolors, such as this: Pennsylvania Horse Barn.

Born Oct 1, 1860 Wisconsin, Mathews was an American Tonalist painter after initailly training as an architect. Comfortable using oils, watercolours and gouache, he studied in California and Paris and was highly active in fighting for the rights of women to study art in the US.

Born 29 Sep 1920 in Washington DC, Lewis was an abstract painter, a member of the Washington School of Color. Other than abstracts, he also painted cityscapes (and Roosters?) focusing on the mystical and emotional aspects of his subjects.

Born Sep 23 1934, New Haven CT, Bannard was probably best known for color field painting – alongside modernism, minimalism and formalism. Featuring in over 100 exhibitions, he was also a professor at Miami University. East of Eden #2

Born 22 Sep 1918 in NYC, Gray started out as a landscape painter, served as a GI and sketched wartime destruction before meeting Picasso and Jacques Villon. Inspired by Cubism in later life his work tended more towards the abstract. Here’s: Active Void

Born Sep 13 1904 in Knoxville, TN, Delaney was committed to opposing racial discrimination. Known particularly for panoramic crowd scenes, showing concern for the lives of common people, he also painted NYC where he lived. Union Square.

Born Sep 12 1914 in San Diego, Brandt was inspired by the life and geography of the US West Coast. A keen sailor, he painted many pictures of boats as well as Californian landscapes – either as block prints, oil paintings or watercolours like: Cottonwood Mountains.

Born 10 Sep 1897 Kentucky, Wolfe, best known as a sculptor but also produced painttings and lithographs of note. He worked in a local realist style that arose in the 30s as a response to European Modernism.