The still-life painter Morston Constantine Ream was born in Lancaster, Ohio, the younger brother of the artist Carducius Plantagenet Ream (1837–1917) whose fruit pictures were reproduced as chromolithographs by the Massachusetts publisher Louis Prang. Morston Ream began his career as a daguerreotypist but turned to painting around 1868 when he decided the process was bad for his health. He was active in New York City from 1872 to around 1883 and exhibited at Moore’s Art Rooms, the Brooklyn Art Association, and the National Academy of Design. Ream lived in Chicago from around 1888 to 1897, and exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ream, who also painted landscapes and genre subjects, died in New York.