John Gannam, illustrator, painter, watercolor specialist, engraver was born in the country of Lebanon in 1897. He spent his early years in Chicago, and at the age of fourteen when his father died, he was forced to leave school to work and became the sole source of income for his family.

One of his early lines of work was as a messenger boy in an engraving studio where he first began his artistic training. After a few years of closely observing artists at work he taught himself to be an artist "like the men who did layouts, lettering, drawings for engravings." He reached his goal when in 1926 he moved to Detroit for four years where he worked in an art studio. He went to New York in 1930 and quickly found employment at Woman's Home C...