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William Dickerson was born in El Dorado, Kansas in 1904 and resided in the state for most of his life except for a four year period (1926-1930) during which he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was during this time that Dickerson studied lithography under the renowned printmaker Bolton Brown, later becoming his student and class assistant. Upon graduation he was offered a teaching position at the school (later filled by noted Chicago artist Francis Chapin), but declined the post and decided to return to his home state. In short order, he would become the guiding force behind the Wichita Art Association.

Dickerson was committed to depicting Kansas and the surrounding region as he saw it, unfiltered by the European traditions that influenced other well known Kansas artists of the time (Birger Sandzen), and unaffected by agendas that shaped the work of some of the more well known Regionalist painters of his day. In this sense, Dickerson can be viewed as one of the more "honest" American Scene painters of his era.