Alexander Calder was born on July 22, 1898, in Lawnton, Pennsylvania. There’s been some confusion over the years though, as members of his family suggest he was born one month later, on August 22. Calder came from a family of artists – his father and grandfather produced numerous sculptures in Philadelphia and his mother was a portrait painter. Calder produced his first sculpture in 1902 when he was four years old. Calder’s family moved to Arizona and later California, where he set up his first studio in the family basement. The family then moved to Philadelphia in 1909, where Calder briefly attended the Germantown Academy. They then moved to Croton-on-Hudson, New York, where Calder met his father’s friend Everett Shinn. Together they built gravity powered mechanical trains. During his teen years, the family moved back and forth between New York and California, but he ultimately graduated in San Francisco in 1915.