Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he became a skilled mid-19th century portrait painter of prominent persons including politicians and U. S. Presidents Lincoln and Grant. At the age of 16, he studied in Philadelphia with miniaturist Edward Miles and then for 3 years with Thomas Sully. In 1826, he returned to Pittsburgh to become a portrait painter, and opened a museum and art gallery patterned after that of Charles Wilson Peale in Philadelphia. Faced with diminished interest in his portraits and the museum, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky for 5 years and from there, traveled in the South for portrait commissions. One of his commissions was a portrait of Charles Fenton Mercer Noland, who was Arkansas's best known leterary figure of the 19th century. In 1837, Lambdin opened a studio in Philadelphia and worded there until his death in 1889. From 1845 to 1864, he was the Director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and from 1861 to 1865, was professor of fine arts at the University of Pennsylvania.

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