George Washington Whistler

George Washington Whistler
Portrait of Major George Washington Whistler by Henry Inman
Born(1800-05-19)May 19, 1800
Fort Wayne, Indiana, US
DiedApril 7, 1849(1849-04-07) (aged 48)
St. Petersburg, Russia
Burial placeStonington, Connecticut, US[1]
Alma materUnited States Military Academy
OccupationCivil engineer
Spouses
Mary Roberdeau Swift
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(m. 1821; died 1827)​
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(m. 1831)​
Children8; including James McNeill Whistler
Parent(s)John Whistler and Anna Bishop

George Washington Whistler (May 19, 1800 – April 7, 1849) was an American civil engineer best known for building steam locomotives and railroads.[2] He is credited with introducing the steam whistle to American locomotives.[3]

In 1842, Tsar Nicholas I hired him to build the Saint Petersburg–Moscow Railway, Russia's first large-scale railroad.[4] One of Whistler's important influences was the introduction of the Howe truss for the Russian railroad's bridges. This inspired the renowned Russian engineer Dmitrii Ivanovich Zhuravskii to perform studies and develop structural analysis techniques for Howe truss bridges.

He was the father of American artist James McNeill Whistler, whose painting Whistler's Mother (of his second wife Anna Whistler) is among the most famous paintings in American art.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference ascebio was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Vanderblue, Homer B. (1939). "An Engineer Writes on Railroad Construction Standards in 1842". Business History Review. 13: 6–11. doi:10.1017/S0007680500022066. S2CID 154969863.
  3. ^ a b MacGregor, Jeff (June 2014). "Getting to Know Whistler's Father". Smithsonian. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  4. ^ Gasparini, D. A., K. Nizamiev, and C. Tardini. "GW Whistler and the Howe Bridges on the Nikolaev Railway, 1842–1851", American Society of Civil Engineers, Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities 30.3 (2015): DOI link:04015046.https://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0000791