An illustrator admired for his craftsmanship and imaginative works, Franklin Booth was born and raised on a farm in Carmel, Indiana. His career spanned the first third of the 20th century, and hallmarks of his art were his decorative borders, gnarled trees, classic hand lettering, and scrolls that framed his distinctive signature.

As a boy, Franklin Booth was determined to become an artist. By studying pictures in books and magazines such as "Scribner's" and "Harper's," then copying the pictures line by line, he developed a very controlled and detailed line technique. Photographic reproduction was only in its infancy at that time, so many of the pictures he studied were simply reproductions of wood and steel engravings.

The ...