John Edward Costigan's oil and watercolor paintings featuring his wife and child made him a member of the honorary association of American artists, the National Academy of Design.
His most famous mediums are oil and watercolor painting as well as etchings and lithographs. His subjects were his wife and his child. In 1928, he became a member of the National Academy of Design. The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition." Membership is limited to 450 American artists and architects, who are elected by their peers on the basis of recognized excellence. 
