STILLMAN, William James, American author: b. Schenectady, N. Y., 1 June 1828; d. Surrey, England, 6 July 1901. After graduation from Union College (1848) he studied land scape art with F. E. Church, and in 1849 went to England to continue his art-work. He adopted the views of Rossetti and Millais, whence he was styled "the American Pre Raphaelite.p On return to the United States he began exhibiting at the Academy of Design, of which in 1854 he was made an associate. In 1852 he went for Louis Kossuth to Hungary to secure the crown-jewels which had been secreted by Kossuth at some point on the Danube. After some further study with Yvon at Paris, he came back to found with John Durand, the Crayon, a magazine of art criticism, which continued two years (1855-57). In 1859 he was again in England and in 1861-65 was United States consul at Rome, and in 1865-69 he held a similar post in Crete. Having abandoned art, owing to failing eyesight, he was a special correspondent for the Times of London from 1878 to 1898, traveling widely about the continent, and being from 1886 cor respondent for Italy and Greece. In 1883-85
he contributed critical papers on art subjects to the New York Evening Post. An expert photog rapher, he was at one time associate editor of the Photographic Times. He made for the Hellenic Society of London a valuable series of photographs of the Acropolis at Athens, and published (1872-73) two manuals of photog raphy. As a journalist he wrote much on many subjects, chiefly art, history and politics, and gained a considerable reputation. His best picture is 'The Procession of the Pines' (1858). Among his published volumes are: 'History of the Cretan Insurrection' (1874) ; 'Herzegovina and the Late Uprising' (1877) ; 'On the Track of Ulysses'(1887) ; 'The Union of Italy' (1898) ; 'The Old Rome and the New' (1898) .; 'Francesco Crispi' (1899); and an interesting 'Autobiography' (Boston 1901, first printed in the 'Atlantic' 1900).