Nicknamed "The Dean of Illustrators" by his peers. A cartoonist at 18 for Louisville Herald. By 1911 he was in the Chicago Tribune's Art department while studying at the city's Art Institute. In 1915, a student of Harvey Dunn, he in turn taught artists and developed talents for a generation. Oils for Cosmopolitan, Redbook, True, American Weekly, Life, Good Housekeeping. Book art for Man from Galilee and others. Ad contracts for GM, Eastern, Pennsylvania Railroad, Paul Jones Whiskey, Aunt Jemima, Seagram's Gin, Woodbury Soap, Palmolive, Coke, Goodyear, New York Life, Squibb. Excellent muralist after a stay in London with Frank Brangwyn and in 1927 began a five-year period of mural painting in California including the Los Angeles Public Library and the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands. Other murals: Rockefeller Center, Bethlehem Steel, New York's General Motors Building, 1939 World's Fair.

In 1959, he was inducted into the Society of Illustrator's Hall of Fame. The monograph on Cornwell by Patricia Broder is back in print and well worth purchasing.

Special thanks to Mark Radcliffe for correcting an error on this page.