Howard Chandler Christy was born in Ohio in 1873. He studied in New York at the National Academy of Design and at the Art Students League. He worked as an illustrator for Scribner's Magazine and during the Spanish American War he accompanied the United States Army to Cuba.

During the First World War Christy produced several notable posters including Gee! I Wish I Were A Man and The Spirit of America.

After the war Christy concentrated on portrait painting. He also painted the mural, The Signing of the Constitution in the Rotunda in Washington.

Howard Chandler Christy died in 1952.