Born in Kingston, Massachusetts, in 1806, Clement Drew is best known as a painter of stormy seascapes of the New England coastline, but he was also a jack of all trades, including librarian, art dealer, framer, photographer, realtor and avid abolitionist. He lived and worked in Boston, where he kept a studio, from 1827 to 1873. He traveled extensively, from Maine to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, to Cape Horn and then San Francisco. His work is in the Peabody Essex Museum.