D. B. Dowd is Professor of Art and American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He also serves as faculty director of the D. B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library at Washington University, devoted to the culture of the illustrated periodical and popular printed matter, renamed in his honor in 2016. He was born in Massillon, Ohio, in 1960, and graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, in 1983 with a B.

A. in History. He earned an M.F.A. in Printmaking from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1989. Active as an illustrator, curator, and critic, Dowd serves as senior fellow in the Society of Fellows at the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies. His prints and books are in many museum collections, including the National Gallery of Art, the Fogg Museum at Harvard, and the Walker Art Center.