Painter, illustrator, and printmaker Otto J. Schneider was born in Atlanta, Logan County, Illinois in 1875. His family moved to Chicago when he was twelve and later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. He worked as an illustrator in Chicago before heading to study at the Art Students League in New York, and Academie Julian in Paris. Schneider was, with Bertha Jaques, Ralph Pearson and Earl Reed, one of the founders of the Chicago Society of Etchers in 1909. He was referred to in some publications as the "American Helleu" because of portraits of women dressed in finery. He later became known for his portraits of notable men, including Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, and Theodore Roosevelt, to name a few.

Selected exhibitions include the Louisiana Purchase Expo, St. Louis World’s Fair, 1904; Panama Pacific Exhibition, 1915; and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Otto J. Schneider died in 1946.