Monte Crews (1888-1946) was born in Fayette, Missouri. He attended the University of Missouri at Columbia before studying at the Art Institute of Chicago and then the Art Students League in New York. He eventually moved back to Missouri, where he continued to create cover illustrations for magazines and and teach at the Kansas City Art Institute; some of his students there went on to become Saturday Evening Post cover illustrators themselves, including Emery Clarke and John Falter. Crews later moved to New Rochelle, New York, an active artists’ colony. While on the east coast, he taught at the Phoenix Art Institute, the Pratt Institute, and the Moore Institute. In 2017, one of his Saturday Evening Post covers, “Amateur Nite,” sold at auction for $40,000.