Rollin Kirby was born in Galva, Illinois, on 4th September, 1875. He studied art in New York and Paris before working as a cartoonist for the New York Evening Mail, New York World and the New York Post. Influenced by the work of Robert Minor and Boardman Robinson, Kirby established himself as America's leading political cartoonist after the First World War.

Kirby won the Pulitzer Prize for cartooning in 1921, 1924 and 1928. Kirby was sympathetic to woman suffrage and contributed cartoons to the Women Voter and the Suffragist. He was also an advocate of civil liberties and the New Deal and attacked political corruption and the Ku Klux Klan.

Rollin Kirby died on 8th May, 1952.