Born at Bay City, Mead studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and with Hugo D. Pohl at San Antonio. In the early 1930s he had a studio near Palo Duro Canyon and painted three murals for PPHM's Pioneer Hall. Mead also lived in San Antonio and Dallas and illustrated books and magazines, including J. Frank Dobie's Coronado's Children, Cow People, and On the Open Range. This painting graced the cover of Dobie’s On the Open Range. This was a gift of Jim and Laura Campbell and can be viewed in the PPHM Southwestern Gallery.