Charles Banks Wilson was born in Springdale, Arkansas and grew up in Oklahoma. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago and moved to New York City in 1941 where he produced his first lithograph for Associated Artists of America. He soon returned to Oklahoma and began teaching art at what is now Northeastern State University. Wilson is renowned in Oklahoma for his murals in the State Capitol depicting Oklahoma history as well as his many portraits from the various Native American tribes across the state. In 1977 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and his lithographs can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institution.