N.C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth was born in 1882 outside of Boston in Needham, Massachusetts. He trained as an artist with prominent illustrator Howard Pyle in Wilmington, Delaware. Before long, Wyeth submitted a cover illustration depicting a bucking bronco to The Saturday Evening Post and the publication readily accepted it. Soon thereafter, Wyeth traveled west at Pyle's suggestion, working as a ranch hand and spending time at Native American reservations. These experiences provided inspiration for subsequent illustrations Wyeth produced to highlight scenes of the Old West that appeared in Scribner's, Harper's Monthly, McClure's, and other magazines.

Wyeth settled in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in 1908 with his wife and they went on to raise their family there. Three of the five Wyeth children would become artists, including Andrew Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth. In 1911, N.C. Wyeth received a commission from Charles Scribner's Sons to illustrate a new edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. The result was a vivid seventeen-painting series dramatizing the wildly popular adventure book. This led to further commissions, including illustrations for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. Altogether, Wyeth executed over 3,000 paintings and illustrations for more than 100 books throughout his career. He was principally a commercial artist, but he endeavored to create work that rose to the level of fine art. In addition, Wyeth took on advertising projects, making illustrations for companies like Kellogg's, Coca-Cola, and Lucky Strike.

By the time that Wyeth passed away in a sudden car accident in 1945, he had established himself as one of the preeminent American illustrators of the first half of the 20th century. Wyeth's home and studio were designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1997. The most significant collection of Wyeth's work is today held at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Works by Wyeth are also part of the collections of the main libraries in New York City and Philadelphia as well as the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, where Wyeth first began as an artist.