Born in Port Mullin, Scotland, David Johnston Kennedy was a largely self-taught artist. In 1835, after living in Canada for two years, he immigrated to the United States where he worked in Nashville, Tennessee, for a short time before settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For Kennedy, who was a purchasing and general agent with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, painting was an avocation rather than a full-time profession. Active in Philadelphia from 1841 to 1878, he painted numerous street scenes and other views of the city. Kennedy exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Exchange and the Artist's Fund Society. More than 650 of Kennedy's watercolors are now at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.