George F. Kerr was born March 13, 1870 in Brooklyn, NY. As a boy he worked in a printing shop and became interested in commercial illustration. He studied art at Cooper Union on Astor Place on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
He illustrated articles and drew editorial cartoons for several New York papers. He also illustrated many children's books, but was most renowned for illustrating Peter Rabbit, Old Mother Westwind, and Frank Baum's American Fairytales.