Arlington Gregg was a noted Works Progress Administration (WPA) poster artist and lithographer. Raised in an orphanage and mostly self-taught, he managed to secure a position in the Illinois Office of the Federal Arts Project Poster Division (1935-1942), where his work gained attention for incorporating Modernist characteristics, playful cartoon-like imagery and inventive use of typography as a design element.
Gregg also served as draftsman for the Army Map Service in Chicago before his appointment as Senior Lithographic Artistic Draftsman for the Naval Oceanographic Office in Washington DC in 1942, performing a large variety of illustrative work and cartography during World War II, including serving as a cartoonist for the Office's wartime newspaper, The Scuttlebutt.
In addition to his work-related art, his personal artwork garnered praise, with showings at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington Arts Club and other exhibition venues.