Kerr Eby
Canadian artist (1890-1946)
Kerr Eby (19 October 1889 – 18 November 1946) was a Canadian illustrator best known for his renderings of soldiers in combat in the First and Second World Wars. He is held in a similar regard to Harvey Dunn and the other famous illustrators dispatched by the government to cover the First World War.
Early life and education
Born in Tokyo, Japan to Canadian Methodist missionary parents in 1889, Eby received formal art training at Pratt Institute and the Art Students League of New York.
Career
Enlisting in the Army in 1917, Eby served in an ambulance crew and later as a camoufleur. Although unable to acquire an artist's commission to cover the war, he created many memorable and haunting images of soldiers both in combat and living their daily lives on the front.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Eby continued to occasionally generate pieces related to his experience, and worked many of his early sketches into completed lithographs. These images were eventually collected and distributed in the book WAR, which remains in the collection of many libraries today. Notable images in this collection include a haunting drawing of marines retreating across the countryside beneath a menacing black cloud. In 1930, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1934. He was also a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists.
“Kerr Eby” enters the record as canadian artist (1890-1946). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kerr, Canadian and artist can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6394320. VIAF identifies the subject as 17497360. The Library of Congress control number is n79126296. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1889, 1946, 1917 and 1930.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kerr Eby” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.