Early Life, Family and Training Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, provides the setting for the birth of Mary Stevenson Cassatt on May 22, 1844. She enters a family of French Huguenot descent, a lineage that brings a sense of cosmopolitanism to her upbringing. Her father, Robert Simpson Cassat, operates as a successful stockbroker and land speculator. Her mother, Katherine Kelso Johnston, arrives from a banking family. Among the seven chil…