Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, NJ in 1917. Lawrence trained and developed his artistic style in New York City. He taught on the art faculty at the University of Washington from 1971 to 1983. He is recognized as a major American artist of the 20th century.

Lawrence's work is included in many major museum and corporate collections in the USA and abroad. Lawrence has received many prestigious awards and is a member of both the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (since 1988) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1995).

Lawrence painted from experience, observing the world around him, Harlem scenes, African markets, builders, people in the street, and most recently supermarkets with their abundance of goods and people. His historical series on Toussaint L'Ouverture, John Brown, the Migration and Harriet Tubman are known the world over through exhibitions and books, reproductions and limited edition prints. Jacob Lawrence died in the year 2000.