 Walter Hugh McDougall was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of John Alexander McDougall (1810–1894), a painter and close associate of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Washington Irving.Walt attended a military academy, and from the age of 16 was self-educated.He began his professional work in 1876 with the New York "Daily Graphic", which three years earlier had become the nation's first illustrated daily newspaper.