Early Life, Family and Training James Abbott McNeill Whistler was born on July 10, 1834, in Lowell, Massachusetts. His childhood was shaped by the movement of his family, following the career of his father, George Washington Whistler, a railroad engineer. In 1842, the family moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, a transition that would fundamentally alter the course of the young boy's life. It was there, amidst the atmosphere of a foreign…