An illustrator born in 1866 in Brooklyn, New York, Edward Penfield is known, along with William Bradley and Louis Rhead as being in the forefront of the American Art Nouveau movement. His parents were Ellen Lock Moore and Josiah B. Penfield. Ellen was a native of England, and both Edward's father and grandfather, Henry Lewis Penfield, came from Rye, New York.

Edward Penfield was the third of five children, and as a boy his health was not strong. He received his elementary education in Brooklyn, was cared for by his mother, and sometimes studied at home. As he grew up, he decided to carry on in the footsteps of his uncle Henry Lewis Penfield, his father's brother, to become an artist. Uncle Henry had a 'bureau of engraving' studio in ...