He was an early practitioner of lithography in the United States and contributed numerous images to medical and sheet music books.

[7] In Philadelphia, Newsam captured the attention of Bishop William White through a chalk drawing on a police box outside of the boarding house where he was staying.

[13] Davis left Newsam behind at the institution, purportedly to travel to Richmond, Virginia to search for other relatives, and was not seen again.

[3] Childs left the business in 1835 and Newsam continued to work for the successor organization, Lehman & Duval which became P.S.

He often copied from the work of other painters including Henry Inman, Charles Bird King, Gilbert Stuart and Thomas Sully.

[3] His lithograph of a portrait of David Crockett painted by Samuel Stillman Osgood was published in 1834 with the endorsement underneath that it was the "only correct likeness that has been taken of me.

"[17] He created images for Thomas McKenney and James Hall for their book History of the Indian Tribes of North American.

[13] In 1853 an exhibition of designs for the monument in Hartford, Connecticut of the educator of the deaf, Thomas Galludet was held.

In 1855 he became a student of the portrait painter R. J. Lambdin, but he was no longer able to use his new knowledge extensively due to his health worsening.