Art critic, novelist, journalist, and essayist. Du Bois was born to African-American couple Alfred Du Bois (c. 1835-c.1906), a barber born in Haiti, and Mary Silvina Burghardt (Du Bois) (c. 1831-1885) in Massachusetts. After receiving his bachelor's degree from Fisk University in 1888, Du Bois continued his studies at Harvard College, enrolling as a junior and receiving his second bachelor's degree in 1890, followed by his MA in 1891 and Ph.D. in 1895. His thesis was on the African Slave Trade in the United States.

President of the Archives of American Art and columnist for Art in America. Lynes was the son of an Episcopal minister, Joseph Russell Lynes and Adelaide Sparkman (Lynes). Lynes was raised in the Berkshires area of Massachusetts and later in New York. He attended Yale University, graduating in 1932. Initially he worked at a clerk at the publisher Harper & Brothers between 1932 and 1936. He married the art historian Mildred Akin in1934.