White painted works for many of the business and political leaders of his time including commissions for three United States Presidents.

[1] White was taught by private tutor until when at seventeen he attended Southwestern Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee to study art.

The forests and swamps of north Florida and south Georgia were the subjects of many of White's early works as he developed his interest and skill in landscape painting during this period.

For a couple years, White traveled and painted his way through towns primarily in southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana.

During this period, the Houston Post reported that while in Galveston, he "completed an excellent picture in oil depicting William J. Bryan on a duck hunt, critics pronounce it a real work of art.

The original of the painting was given to President McKinley, and the lithograph of the image was hung in hundreds of public schools throughout Texas.

White earned praise at the fair including being awarded a first prize for a still life titled Basket of Peaches in the Love Orchard at Jacksonville.

[2] During his St. Louis period, White continued to paint marine and hunting scenes, but may have been best known for his depictions of blossoming fruit trees.

[2] White's paintings were distributed by galleries in St. Louis, Chicago, New York City, and Boston, and special catalogues were produced for sales in Texas where he remained popular.