Joseph Alexander Adams was an engraver who is said to have been the first electrotyper

Electrotyping

Electrotyping is a chemical method for forming metal parts that exactly reproduce a model. The method was invented by Moritz von Jacobi in Russia in 1838, and was immediately adopted for applications in printing and several other fields...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He was born in New Germantown, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 (now within Tewksbury Township

Tewksbury Township, New Jersey

Tewksbury Township is a Township located in Hunterdon County, New Jersey and is located within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the United States 2010 Census, the township population was 5,993...

), in 1803.

He was an apprentice in the printing business. His work as an engraver had appeared as early as 1833 in the Treasury of Knowledge and the Cottage Bible. He engraved Last Arrow for the New York Mirror

New York Mirror

The New-York Mirror was a weekly newspaper published in New York City from 1823 to 1842, and again as a daily newspaper renamed The Evening Mirror from 1844 to 1898.-History:...

in 1837, and 1,600 illustrations for Harper's Illuminated Bible in 1843. He also made significant improvements in the process of electrotyping. He died in New Jersey in 1880.