On this day, March 29, 1959, George Matthews Harding died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Harding studied at Boston Tech, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and with Howard Pyle in Wilmington, Delaware. His first illustrations were published in 1903. Oakley joined the art faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1915 and was one of the eight American illustrator who were embedded with the American Expeditionary Forces in WWI. During WWII he accepted a commission with the U. S. Marine Corps as a combat artist in the Pacific arena.

Harding