Born in Indiana in 1883, Wayman Adams would become a well known portrait artist. His father was a farmer but he was also very gifted artistically but he died when his son was very young.

Wayman Adams was unable to receive a more formal education but his talent was evident and widely recognized fairly early in his life. He won an Indiana State Fair first prize for some of his artwork and by the time he was sixteen years old, he'd received his first payment for commissioned art. He painted a prize cow and was paid a total of $5.00.

Soon, Adams had changed his educational goals. He enrolled at John Herron Art Institute and later studied at the New York Grand Central Art School. He would also go on to study under great painters such as William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri.

In 1918, he married an Italy art student and the couple went on to have one son. Even though Wayman Adams would eventually take up residence in Texas, he was a well known artist before he would gain acceptance and recognition in Texas. Additionally, he did keep his New York City studio for most of his life.

Wayman Adams would be commissioned to paint some of the more notorious women and men of his time including Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. Bobby Jones, Clara Driscoll and Gregor Piatigorsky would also sit as the subjects of the Adams portraits.

Paying tribute to the very schools where he was taught, Adams would later return to John Herron Art Institute and New York Grand Central Art School to teach. He later received an honorary doctorate degree from Syracuse University in 1943.