Howard Whitford Willard (1894-1960) was an artist best known for his lithographs and woodcuts and his western and "ethnic" dust jackets and illustrations.
Born in Illinois, he moved to California as a child and spent part of his life there, along with an extended period in New York City, where he was a prominent member of the art scene.
[4] A year earlier he had been one of a group of American artists selected for a joint Cuban-American project to design postage stamps for Cuba that sought to raise awareness of the danger of "Fifth Columnists" in that country.
[5] In the 1940s, Willard was associated with artists of the New Masses such as Art Young and Rockwell Kent, participating with them in an effort to raise money for the periodical in 1943.
[7] Limited Editions Design for Carolyn Wells, “Lavinia Dickinson.” The Colophon: A Book Collectors’ Quarterly, Part Three (September 1930).
Mary Viola Gross, From the Creation of Man to Eternity (Los Angeles: Warren T. Potter, 1916) Cover design and illustrations.
Rose L. Ellerbee, Tales of California Yesterdays (Los Angeles, Warren T. Potter, 1916) Cover design and illustrations.
Anna Taggart Clark, The Quest of “Little Blessing” (Los Angeles: Warren T. Potter, 1916) [Illustrations].
Edna Ferber, Cimarron (Garden City: Doubleday, Doran, 1930) Decorations (cover and interior).
Dust jacket and illustrations for Elizabeth Morrow, Rabbit’s Nest (New York: MacMillan, 1940).
Charles E. Kaney, Spoken Spanish for Students and Travelers: Revised Edition (Boston: D. C. Heath, 1943).
for Max Wylie, Clear Channels: Television and the American People (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1955) Illustrations for Donald Hough, The Cocktail Hour in Jackson Hole (Norton, 1956).
"[10] Dore Ashton reviewed the exhibition, noting Willard's mix of "wry humor with a bright sense of selection especially in his collages."