Heaton is the author of memoirs, poetry, and nonfiction on the visual arts and numismatics. His books include: Memories of Italy (1882), A Treatise on Coinage of the Unites States Branch Mints (1893), Fancies and Thoughts in Verse (1904), Yellowstone Letters (1906), and Color, A Treatise(1929). He edited a quarterly magazine, The Nutshell.
Heaton, a Philadelphia-born Quaker, settled in DC in 1884, remaining through his death in 1930. He was active in several local groups, including the Literary Society and the Cosmos Club (where he was chair of their Art Department), and president of the American Numismatic Association from 1894 to 1899.
Heaton is best known, however, not as a writer but as a painter. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and is best known for his portraits and history paintings. “The Recall of Columbus” was purchased by the U.S. Senate and was reproduced as a U.S. stamp; another painting, “Hardships of Emigration,” also appeared on a stamp.