name Neysa after meeting one of Homer Davenport's fillies at his stables. Whatever the original impetus for the change, McMein thought that the name Neysa "had a commercial value" above that of her birth name. McMein studied at the Art Students League of New York in 1914. Career McMein sold her first drawing to the Boston Star in 1914. She created Harry Horowitz's portrait in 1915 before he was executed for Herman Rosenthal's murder. That year, she sold an illustration for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post and her Misinformation illustration appeared on the May 8, 1915, cover of Puck magazine. She became known for her portrayal of "All American Girls." McMein made posters for French and United States governments during World War I, as did Thelma Cudlipp, Helen Hyde and Mary Brewster Hazelton. Posters that she made also were used by the American Red Cross in its fund-raising campaigns. She traveled across France to entertain the troops in 1918. Of her time at the Western Front, McMein said, "Since I have lived through air bombing I never will be frightened by anything on earth. The terror of air raids cannot be imagined. They are heralded by the blowing of sirens and the ringing of church bells, and amid this din the lights are extinguished and then suddenly come the bombs, falling no one knows where. The noise they made is worse than that of the battles." McMein made portraits of some of the soldiers, drew cartoons, and colored the design of the Indian head insignia that was then used by the 93rd Bomb Squadron to denote the number of German planes that a given plane shot down by drawing a German black cross over one of the bear teeth in a necklace worn around the Indian head. She returned to the United States to care for her mother after her father died. While in Quincy, she spoke at two fund-raising drives. "[McMein] was the main attraction. The theater was filled. She was an excellent speaker; very witty and clever," according to Sarah Carney. For her efforts supporting the U.S. war effort, McMein was appointed an honorary non-commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps, one of only three women to be so honored. Her illustrations appeared on the covers and within articles for McClure's magazine by 1919. By the 1920s, McMein and Jessie Willcox Smith were two of