Doel Reed returned to Cincinnati and the Art Academy. The teacher L.H. Meaken gave Reed his only formal training in the graphic arts. He watched Meaken print from the plates of Frank Duveneck. During this time he studied Francisco Goya’s aquatints and turned to print making.

His respiratory problems led him to move to a drier climate and he accepted a teaching position at Oklahoma A & M College (now Oklahoma State University). He was basically given the reins to develop the art curriculum. His expertise on printmaking helped distinguish the department from others in the region. The students and faculty lionized him,

Reed took every chance to travel and follow the trends in art, always drawing and sketching. His journeys took him to Nova Scotia, France and Mexico. During the fuel rationing of WWII, he stayed closer to home and traveled the southwest, spending time in Taos. When he retired in 1959, he moved to there. to spend the remainder of his life. Reed fell in love with the landscape and its people. His work during this time led him to be one of the premier painters and printmakers of his time. He was elected to the National Academy of Design for graphic arts in 1952 and wrote a book called “Doel Reed Makes an Aquatint.”

Reed’s work is in the collection of the Carnegie Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Southern Methodist University, the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, the Oklahoma Art Club, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the University of Tulsa, the Seattle Art Museum, the Honolulu Academy of Art, Grinnell College, La Biblioteque Nationale, Paris and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.