[1] Emerson Samuels was born on 22 January 1928 in Nabacalis on the East Coast of Demerara, where he spent his childhood.

When aged about 15 he travelled to Georgetown with a portfolio of his drawings to apply for work with the British Guiana Lithographic Company, and was hired as an apprentice.

[2] In 1951 he won the WPAC's "Picture of the Year" award with his painting The Workers, which shows men at work on the new Lithographic Company building.

[3] Samuels left the Lithographic Company in 1961, and obtained a position with the Ministry of Agriculture, where he illustrated various publications for farmers.

While on vacation in New York, Emerson Samuels died at the Brookdale Medical Center in Brooklyn from a massive heart attack on 6 August 2003.