[4] The purpose of the club was to create and promote etchings that did not merely reproduce existing paintings, but were original creations of art in their own right.

[6] Other important members of the New York Etching Club included Charles Adams Platt, Thomas Moran, Samuel Colman, Kruseman Van Elten, William Merritt Chase, Frederick Stuart Church, Stephen Parrish, Joseph Pennell, J. C. Nicoll, Charles Frederick William Mielatz, Walter Satterlee, and Thomas Waterman Wood.

[9][10] That was not the case, however, for Edith Loring Getchell and Mary Nimmo Moran, two other artists of note who were both primarily etchers.

From 1879 to 1881, works by members of the New York Etching Club were also featured in a periodical called The American Art Review.

The success of the New York Etching Club helped spawn similar organizations in other major American cities in the late 19th century.