Stanley Massey Arthurs (1877-1950) was born on November 27, 1877. He studied art first with Clawson Hammitt (1857-1927) and then Howard Pyle (1853-1911). His first illustration was published in Harper’s Weekly in the December 2, 1899 issue. Arthurs illustrated a significant amount of popular literature, but his area of specialty was historical scenes. He did murals for the state capitol buildings in both Delaware and Minnesota as well as historical work for the DuPont Company in calendars and the company magazine. He also painted landscapes.

Clyde Osmer DeLand (1872-1947) was born in Union City Pennsylvania on December 27, 1872. As a young man, he studied and taught music and was a concert pianist. In 1894, he enrolled at Drexel Institute (now Drexel University) in Philadelphia and studied art under Howard Pyle. In the summers of 1898 and 1899 under a new program sanctioned by Drexel, DeLand was one a few students selected to study with Pyle at his Chadd’s Ford, Pennsylvania studio. By that time he had received contracts from publishers, like Houghton Mifflin, to illustrate their novels. His work also appeared in Harper’s Monthly, Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, and American Boy as well as the Gerlach Barklow Calendar Company.

Gayle Porter Hoskins (1887-1962) was born in Brazil, Indiana on July 20, 1887. Five years later his family moved to Denver, and by the age of fourteen he was a cartoonist for the Denver Post. In 1904, Hoskins began studying at the Chicago Art Institute under Charles Francis Browne (1859-1920), Frank Phoenix (1858-1924), Thomas Wood Stevens (1880-1942), and John Vanderpoel (1857-1911). In 1907 he became a mural designer for Marshall Field and Company and also published his first illustrations in Red Book. That same year Howard Pyle invited Hoskins to study at his school in Wilmington, Delaware. By 1918 he was publishing in several national magazines, including Harper’s Weekly, Good Housekeeping, Liberty, Saturday Evening Post, and Cosmopolitan, as well as illustrating book jackets and calendars. With financial losses due to the Great Depression, Hoskins began working in pulp magazines (Western Story, Complete Stories, Top-Notch, Sure-Fire Western, Super Western, and Western Trails. In 1938, he ceased working for the pulp magazines and focused instead on historical subjects and portraits. Hoskins taught throughout his life, and in 1928 he was a founding member of the Wilmington Academy of Art. He was also a founding member of the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts (now the Delaware Art Museum) and a co-founder of the Wilmington Sketch Club.

Frank Earle Schoonover (1877-1972) was born on August 19, 1877 in Oxford, New Jersey. In 1896, he was accepted to Drexel Institute’s art school and studied under Howard Pyle. He was accepted as one of a handful of students to study at Pyle’s studio in Chadds Ford during the summers of 1898 and 1899. In the latter year, he was illustrating A Jersey Boy of the Revolution and In the Hands of the Red Coats. Pyle encouraged his students to travel so that they could get first-hand experience with the subjects they were illustrating, and Schoonover traveled extensively throughout the Canadian and American frontiers. With this background he illustrated many classic adventure books like Kidnapped, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, and Ivanhoe. He also illustrated many books by Zane Grey (1872-1939). He illustrated over 200 books in all. He was a founding member of the Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, which became the Delaware Art Museum. In 1925, he co-founded the Wilmington Sketch Club with Gayle Porter Hoskins. Schoonover was a devout Episcopalian and designed sixteen stained glass windows for his church. Later in his career he painted landscapes and restored paintings. In 1942, he formed his own art school where he taught until 1968 when a series of strokes ended his art career at the age of ninety-one. Schoonover passed away in 1972.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. The company was established in 1802 by Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834) the company began with the production of gunpowder. The du Pont’s purchased a mill site on the banks of the Brandywine River just north of Wilmington, Delaware. During wartime the company was a major supplier for the United States government. During peacetime, the company marketed their product towards sportsmen and hunters. Throughout the 1900s and 1910s, the company shifted its focus away from gunpowder production and towards chemistry innovations.