Nationally renowned artist Anita Munman did not originally plan an artistic career, rather her academic training led her in that unexpected direction. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Suma cum laude from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a B.A. in the history of architecture and art, she decided to pursue a career as a university educator. While working toward her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in preparation for that career, she became interested in how the artists of the American Arts & Crafts movement (ca. 1900 -1925) translated their social theory and philosophy into visual form. As an intellectual exercise, she began doing so herself. This activity led to the creation of the many images now available in her collection of American Arts & Crafts paintings and lithographs.