Henry Alexander Ogden

Who was Henry Alexander Ogden?

Henry Alexander Ogden aka H. A. Ogden was an American illustrator particularly of historical and military subjects. He was born in Philadelphia on July 17, 1856 but moved to Brooklyn, New York when he was quite young and it was at the Brooklyn Institute and the Brooklyn Academy of Design that he received his first training in art. At the age of 17, he began work with Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. This allowed him to travel extensively around the United States and Europe. One visit to the American West in 1877 resulted in over 200 illustrations.

In 1881 he resigned from Leslie's to set up as a free-lance artist, submitting numerous illustrations to various newspapers and magazines. A number of these were illustrations of historical scenes, and Ogden's interest in early America and the Revolutionary War led him to his most ambitious project, to record the uniforms of the United States Army. Between 1890 and 1907, various sections of Uniforms of the United States Army were published.