Biography
He was born on December 16, 1853 in Lewiston, Maine to Manly Orville Butler and Elizabeth Howe. He had eight siblings: two of them, George H. Butler and Charles H. Butler formed a partnership with Edward. Manly owned a grocery store. In 1858, his family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and he attended the Boston public school system.
With two of his brothers, George Henry Butler and Charles Hamblet Butler, he founded Butler Brothers in Boston in 1877.
For five years he sold goods throughout New England and Canada as a traveling salesman. He married Jane Holly in 1880, she was the daughter of William Henry Holly, of Norwalk, Connecticut.
With his wealth he collected works by George Inness, and later donated the collection to the Art Institute of Chicago. Having trained under Frank Charles Peyraud, Butler became a landscape painter. For a time he exhibited his works under a pseudonym, "Edward Burgess". In 1908, he exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago. One of his oil paintings was displayed at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915.
Butler moved to Pasadena, California after he retired from business. He died in Pasadena, California on February 20, 1928.
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