This concluded Benton's formal artistic education, around the year 1926 Benton began to emerge with his mature style of art; including his commitment to American Regionalism. Benton spent much of his early career in New York City, where in 1912 he set up his first studio at 65th and Broadway. While in his New York City studio Benton supported himself by earning seven dollars a day painting movie queens , as well as his first job cartooning for the Joplin American . This early struggle gave Benton a first hand view of the harsh lifestyle a poor American faced trying to move up in an industrializing world. During the summer of 1917 Benton got his first respectable job as the director of the Peoples Gallery in New York City. While doing this he began teaching at the Chelsea Neighborhood Association, where he would eventually meet his wife. His work at these was interrupted by a call to service in the United States Navy for World War Two . His service there would later lead to his contributing twenty-five works to the Abbot collection of naval art . Benton served in the Norfolk Naval base in Virginia. His experiences there are those he would include in his works, such as shipbuilding and hard physical labor. After his service abroad and time spent on some of his more famous works, and teaching at the University of Mo (1935-1941) and later at the age of forty-eight released his autobiography An Artist In America in 1937. During the 1950's Benton spent the majority of his time interpreting the history of America from his point of view, to eventually conclude his work with a series of murals known rightfully as The History of America. To conclude his lifetime career and contributions to art, in 1963 Benton was inducted to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City . He later received the Jennie Sesnan Medal of New York Architecture League as well as the Wanamaker's Purchase Prize.
