Williams came to the United States in 1885. He studied nights at the Art Institute of Chicago and worked days as a photographic retoucher and commercial artist. He went on to illustrate for the New York Herald Tribune (1927-34), the Saturday Evening Post, Redbook, Collier's, and Ladies' Home Journal.
In 1906 he married Clark Peck, and in 1930 Mina Van Bott. From 1923 he maintained a studio in Greenwich Village. He was also active at Leonia, New Jersey. He served as head of the department of fine arts at Wyoming State University (1948-52). He organized the American Artists' Professional League and served as president 1955-57.
His major works include: stained glass windows and murals for the Indiana State Library and Historical Building at Indianapolis; stained glass windows for the library of the University of Illinois (1925); stained glass windows for the King Memorial Main Reading Room and the Gilman Memorial at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. For the 1939 New York Worlds Fair Shelter Building he did a 70' enamel mural which now hangs in the depot at Cleveland, Ohio. For the American Battle Monuments Commission he did 17 enamel maps for World War II memorial monuments in cemeteries.
