Thomas Ashburton Picken

He produced lithographs of SS Great Eastern and the laying of the Atlantic cable, and he illustrated books.

[3][7][8][9] Andrew Picken senior's first book, Tales and Sketches of the West of Scotland (1824), about historical changes there, "gave great offence to the citizens of Glasgow" and this drove him out of the town.

[17][12] In 1841 he was living in Great Randolph Street, Kentish Town, London, with his mother Janet, his brother James, and his sisters Emma and Sophia, and describing himself as an artist.

[7] In 1851 the census finds him living at 13 Murray Street, Camden, with his brother James and his sister Sophia.

[13] By 1861 he was lodging at 27 Rutland Street, St Pancras, London, with the family of sculptor Thomas Woolner (1825–1892).

[13][nb 5] No other original artist is credited for this work, so it is not impossible that the initial sketches were undertaken by Picken himself.

The Day and Haghe lithographer William Simpson said, "In lithography ... we [at times] had to work out rough materials into pictures ... if a man has any stuff in him it finds development.