[2] He started as a wood engraver, serving and apprenticeship with the firm Dalziel of London, and soon turned to drawing for illustration and watercolor painting.

His first highly successful commission was to illustrate John Greenleaf Whittier's Snow-Bound published by Boston's Ticknor and Fields in 1867 for the Christmas trade (dated 1868).

Its tiny images apparently opened the eyes of many to the artistic possibilities of wood engravings, and it is often referred to as the "first gift book published in America," although it had predecessors.

Other artists contributed to each of these books, but Fenn was the most prolific contributor, and his innovative page designs combining image and text popularized this approach.

They built pride in America's scenic landscapes and urban centers, informed a curious, increasingly cosmopolitan public about foreign lands, and fostered an appreciation of printed pictures as artworks accessible to a growing middle class" (p. 1).