Dean Cornwell, illustrator and muralist, had a great love of American history. His early efforts at drawing won him a place on the staff of the Louisville Herald in his teenage years. He went to Chicago in 1911 where he joined the staff of the Chicago American and attended classes sporadically at the Art Institute. In 1915, after his first major magazine commission, illustrations for Redbook, he came to New York and studied at the Art Students League with Harvey Dunn at his summer school in Leonia, NJ. After he achieved success as an illustrator, he turned to mural painting, studying with Brangwyn in London (1927-30).
Cornwell's major works include: 16 panels for the Los Angeles Public Library (1927), executed in London; two murals for the General Motors building at the New York World's Fair; a series "Pioneers of American Medicine" commissioned in 1939 by Wyeth Laboratories; a mural for the post office at Chapel Hill, NC (1941); and a mural "A History of Transportation" for the Eastern Airlines office in Rockefeller Center (1944-46).
An exhibition of his work was held at the J.B. Speed Art Museum in Louisville in 1953 and a retrospective of his illustrations at the Society of Illustrators in 1960. He maintained a studio on 67th Street in New York for his whole career. He was noted for the research, accuracy and authenticity of detail in his work. He taught at the National Academy of Design ( - ). To qualify as an Academician he submitted a study "Mural Cartoon for the State Building, Nashville, Tennessee."
