Hermon Atkins MacNeil: Life and Legacy Early Life and Education Born in Everett, Massachusetts in 1866, Hermon Atkins MacNeil demonstrated an early aptitude for art. He received his formal training at the Massachusetts Normal Art School (now Massachusetts College of Art and Design), graduating in 1886. MacNeil initially worked as an instructor in industrial art at Cornell University from 1886 to 1889, before pursuing further st…