A member of the famous artistic family, Nathaniel Wyeth stood out by becoming an engineer and inventor. Born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Nat was the son of famed illustrator N. C. Wyeth, who constantly encouraged his children to develop and express their imaginations. While brother Andrew and three sisters flourished artistically and musically, Nat dismantled clocks and transformed them into toy speedboat engines. Far from disapproving, N. C. early on suspected his son's talents would lie in engineering and changed the boy's given name from Newell Convers (N. C.'s own name) to Nathaniel, the name of an uncle who was an engineer. N. C. recruited another uncle to survey colleges where Nat could receive good technical training. Nat attended the uncle's choice, the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a B.S. in 1936. During his college years, Wyeth designed and built a 20-foot hydroplane.

Upon graduating, Wyeth worked...