James C. McKell (1884-1956) was born in Burlington, Iowa. He studied at the Cumming School of Art in Des Moines and then the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In addition to his work for The Saturday Evening Post, McKell also created illustrations for Ladies Home Journal, The Frontier, Everybody's Magazine, Argosy, and West, among many others. Many of his illustrations featured cowboys and scenes from the Wild West. He also created posters for the Bermuda Steamship Line and was a staff artist for General Electric.