Americanist and art magazine editor; infamous for his anti-modernist stance on American art. He was born in Long Island, NY, USA, in Malverne. Boswell's father Peyton Boswell, Sr. (1879-1936), was an art columnist for the New York Tribune and later founder of the magazine Art Digest. His mother was Bessie Boswell. Boswell attended Rutgers graduating in 1926. The same year, his father founded the journal Art Digest. The younger Boswell worked as a sports journalist in Santa Fe, NM.

Professor of art history, University of Virginia, 1938-1950; chief art critic (and anti-modernist) for the New York Times during the period of abstract expressionism. Canaday was the son of Franklin Canaday and Agnes Musson (Canaday). His father was a Kansas attorney. The younger Canaday moved to Texas with his family at age seven. He attended the University of Texas in Austin, receiving his B.A. in 1925. His M.A. was granted from Yale University in 1932. He married Katherine Hoover in 1935. Between 1938-1950 he taught art history at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Anti-modernist art critic and art historian. Craven was born to Richard Price and Virginia Bates (Craven). Craven graduated from Kansas Wesleyan University in 1908, moving to Paris for a time to study art. In France, Craven attempted to be as French as possible, according to himself, in order to be an artist. However, Craven returned to the United States settled in Greenwich Village and became acquainted with the American realist artists working there.