Charles S. Graham was born in
Rock Island, Illinois in 1852. In the early 1870s, he worked as a
topographer for the
Northern Pacific Railway in
Idaho and
Montana. Despite receiving no formal training as an artist, he was hired as a scenic artist for Hooley's Theater in
Chicago. He then continued this work at several theaters in
New York City. Around 1877, he joined
Harper & Brothers and became an illustrator for ''
Harper's Weekly, touring and illustrating the American West. He toured the Southern United States in 1886, illustrating a series of articles for Harper's
on the New South. In 1892, he became a freelancer, though he continued to contribute to Harper's
, along with The Century Magazine, Collier's and the New York Herald''. Around this time his method shifted from
pencil drawing and
watercolor painting to
oil painting. He was designated the official artist of the
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Graham died in New York City on August 9, 1911. ==References==