Harold Barbour was born in Newtonville, Massachusetts in 1889. He attended the Art Students League in New York City and worked in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1929 Barbour and his wife moved to Higganum, Connecticut and lived there until his death. He was active in the Central Connecticut Art Center in Marlborough. In addition to illustrations and cartoons, Barbour wrote poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. He was active in the Brainerd Memorial Library, serving as chair of the Board of Trustees, and  was a member of the Haddam Historical Society. The Haddam Historical Society now owns the [Harold] Barbour Collection of cartoons and illustrations, his fiction, non-fiction, poetry, pencil sketches, photographs, and wood block prints. Barbour worked for the Public Works of Art Project, a program funded prior to the WPA Federal Arts Project. For the WPA, he painted 54 easel paintings and two murals, one depicting a scene from the Portland Quarry and the other, a shipyard in Portland. Both are in the Portland High School. A series of easel paintings on tobacco farming were allocated to the Portland Board of Education. A series of ten easel paintings was done for the Children’s Village in Hartford, Connecticut now known as the Village for Families and Children. Barbour died in 1961.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; The Harold Barbour Collection, Haddam Historical Society;” “Mural Panels by Harold Barbour of Higganum for Portland High School Auditorium,” Hartford Courant, May 29, 1938; “Exhibition,”Hartford Courant, December 11, 1968; “Harold Barbour Re-elected Head of Library,” Hartford Courant, June 2, 1959.