Painter and printmaker Leslie Cope was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England. His father, Sidney, moved the family to Zanesville, Ohio in 1929, where he designed ornamental tiles for the Mosaic Tile Company, and later for the Nelson McCoy Pottery in nearby Roseville, where Leslie produced designs under his father’s supervision.

Upon his return from military service following World War II, Cope married and devoted his energies to prints and paintings. He belonged to the Society of American Graphic Artists, the Prairie Print Makers, the California Watercolor Society, among other such organizations. His work was exhibited at the U. S. Capitol and is held by numerous institutions including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Library of Congress, and the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh. He died in Roseville, Ohio.