Born 1890 in Great Falls, Montana, Edward McKnight Kauffer was an American artist and graphic designer best known for his modernist poster art. Kauffer began his studies in 1910 in San Francisco at the California School of Design and subsequently the Art Institute of Chicago. During his studies, Professor Joseph McKnight of the University of Utah, grew interested in his work and sponsored him to travel to Paris to further his education at the Académie Moderne.
At the beginning of the First World War, Kauffer moved to London with his family where he produced 140 posters for London Underground and London Transport. He also created posters for the Great Western Railway and Shell Oil, as well as, created book illustrations and book covers, his most notable being the 1952 dust cover for Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Kauffer returned to New York City at the start of the Second World War, where his primary client until his death in 1954 was American Airlines.
