Geerlings is known for his early-20th century architectural etchings, aquatints, and intaglio prints depicting the rise of American metropolises and urbanization during the interwar period.

The 120th Field Artillery Landed at Liverpool, England and then traveled by rail to South Hampton and across the English Channel to Le Havre, France.

[5] After the 32nd Divisional Artillery had taken Juivgay, it was relieved by the 2nd Moroccan Division, which included the famous French Foreign Legion.

[6] Gerald Geerlings returned to the military to fight in World War II, this time joining the U.S. Army Air Forces.

Faced with the absence of adequate British and Allied force map coverage of Axis targets and areas of control (due to the fact that aerial missions of the time predominantly occurred at night, where detailed maps were not required and accuracy was seen as impossible),[7] Geerlings devised a novel way to map strategic targets in order to fundamentally improve bombing accuracy and situational awareness for military aerial campaigns, allowing military air power and bombers to take an unprecedented front-seat in the execution of strategic military campaigns.

[11] Utilizing techniques of "heightened abstraction", Geerlings created groundbreaking maps for World War II bombing campaigns—each approach provided 6 visualizations of strategic enemy targets, combining target views from 15 miles out (for use by navigators) with analogous views of from a distance of 7 miles out (for use by bombardiers).

"[8] Geerlings' innovations in cartography bolstered the subsequent emergence and establishment of strategic bombing as a critical tool in military combat.

[12] In 1943, Geerlings was awarded the Legion of Merit medal with an oak leaf cluster for his navigational and bombing innovations, which were used in the Battle of Ploiești.

Between 1948 and 1952, Geerlings served as a part-time civilian consultant to the Strategic Air Command Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska.

Though his plans to complete his schooling had been by global conflict, after spending 18 months as a commissioned officer in France, he was invited to study at St John's College, Cambridge in England.

For the 1921-1922 academic year, Gerald Geerlings was awarded the "Prix d'Emulation of the Société des Architects Diplomés par le Gouvernement Français".

[14] Upon returning to Wisconsin, Geerlings continued his study of architecture under the guidance of the professors of the Chicago Art Institute.

These prints carefully reproduced original architectural studies of Robert Adam, whose renowned ornate designs graced many interiors of great English homes and estates.

With his studies completed and his early academic works published, Gerald Geerlings returned to the U.S. to pursue his career in architecture.

During the 44 years of his architectural practice, Geerlings became an accomplished draftsman, designing many personal residences, and assisting with land planning.

With names like Colossus, The Vertical Mile, and Olympus, Gerald's etchings captured the zeitgeist of urban pre-war America.

Gerald's depictions of urban constructions were a testament to this period's collective optimism, society's belief in human progress, and the nation's confidence in boundless growth and opportunities.

[28] In 1933, Geerlings was awarded the First Prize for "Best Etching" for his work Grand Canal, America at the Century of Progress Chicago World's Fair exhibition.

[30] Despite the critical acclaim received for his early prints, the economic conditions of the Great Depression forced Geerlings to temporarily abandon printmaking.

[31] He spent the next four decades exploring commercial opportunities through his architectural practice and authoring additional books on metalworking and wrought iron.

The catalogue raisonné of his prints, Gerald K. Geerlings, was published in 1984 by Joseph S. Czestochowski of the Cedar Rapids Art Association.