Grant Wood

Grant Wood was born on a farm east of Anamosa in 1891. Wood displayed early evidence of artistic ability and upon graduation from high school he enrolled at the Handicraft Guild in Minneapolis. He later taught school and attended night classes at the Art Institute in Chicago, served in the Army and later was an instructor at the University of Iowa. During this period, he traveled to Europe several times and his contact with Flemish and German primitive art forms resulted in his decision to return and settle in Iowa to paint the scenes and people he knew best in his own unique style.

•  Attracted to the natural beauty of the terrain, Wood chose Stone City for his art colony during summers of 1932-33.
• Best known for his painting, American Gothic, he also painted Stone City, Iowa; collection of the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha.

Although the farmhouse where Wood was born is no longer standing, Antioch school, the country school he attended is located four miles East of Anamosa on Highway 64. Grant Wood died in 1942 and is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Anamosa.