Nathaniel Jocelyn was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of clockmaker and engraver Simeon Jocelin and Luceanah Smith.

[2] The inventor Eli Whitney also helped to foster his career, and in 1820 he briefly worked in the studio of Samuel F. B.

Garrison declared that Jocelyn's portrait was a "tolerable likeness," but remarked that "those who imagine that I am a monster, on seeing it will... deny its accuracy, seeing no horns about the head.

"[4] Another of Jocelyn's well-known works is his 1839 portrait of Joseph Cinqué, leader of a revolt on the Spanish slave ship La Amistad.

His New Haven studio burned in 1849, and for a time he gave up painting for engraving, initially with the firm of Toppan, Carpenter & Co.

He went on to found the National Bank Note Engraving Company, where he served as head of the art department through to the end of the Civil War.