An engraver, illustrator, and portrait artist, Richard W. Dodson was born on 5 February 1812 in Cambridge, Maryland. He was a pupil of James B. Longacre and spent his professional career in Philadelphia. In addition to his published work, he produced portraits in sepia which he exhibited at the Artists' Fund Society in Philadelphia and at the Apollo Gallery, New York. He died on 25 July 1867 at Cape Nay, New Jersey.

His only known Scott-related engraving is a version of Sir Henry Raeburn's 1808 portrait published as the frontispiece to the American edition of J.G. Lockhart's Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., published by Carey, Lea, & Blanchard, Philadelphia, in 1838.