Harvey Dunn

Harvey Dunn (1884-1952) was an American illustrator and artist who is best known for his paintings depicting early pioneer homesteaders on the Great Plains.

Dunn was born on a homestead just west of De Smet, South Dakota where he lived for the first 12 years of his life. He attended a one-room country school in Esmond Township after which he was accepted as a preparatory student at South Dakota Agricultural College (now South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota.

Following that, upon the recommendation of his art teacher, he began work at the Chicago Institute of Art where he was a student of the well-known illustrator Howard Pyle. Soon thereafter he began his career as an illustrator for several magazines, including Collier's, Harper's, Scribner's and especially the Saturday Evening Post.

He began teaching in 1915, an occupation which he would engage in for the remainder of his life except for a stint as one of the official illustrators for the American Expeditionary Force in World War I.

Upon returning from the front, Dunn returned to his prairie roots and produced a number of his most famous works devoted the prairie life in the early homestead era.