Henry Martin Gasser, painter, lecturer, teacher, illustrator, and author, was born in Newark, New Jersey on Oct. 31,1909. His experience in art began at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art and the Grand Central School of Art. This was followed by study at the Art Students League of New York in the classes of Robert Bracman. He later studied privately under John R. Grabach. His work is represented in over fifty museum collections and numerous important private ones as well. Among the awards that Gasser received are the Hallgarten Prize at the National Academy, the Zabriskie, Osborne, and Obrig prizes at the American Watercolor Society, the Philadelphia watercolor club prize, the Allied Artists Gold Medal at Oakland, California and many others. He was a member of the National academy of Design, the American Watercolor Society, the Royal Society of Art (Great Britain), the Salmagundi Club, the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Watercolor Clubs and the New Jersey Watercolor Society. He was a life member of the National Arts Club, Grand Central Art Galleries and the Art Students League and others. Gasser served as Director of the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art from 1946-54 then continued lecturing and demonstrating for most of the remainder of his life. He also wrote numerous books on painting. He died in Orange, NJ in 1981.

During his career in the Army and while assigned to Camp Croft, Gasser created several pen and ink as well as water color pictures which were exhibited at the camp, in town, and  in the local newspaper.  Below is a modest collection of those unique images. The first few are pen and ink drawings that appeared in an edition of the Spartanburg Journal, some of which later formed the basis of watercolor images.