In 1901, Cole had some of his artwork displayed at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. This, of course, was the occasion where President William McKinley was shot.
Soon after, Cole began to venture into the fields of wood/steel engraving and etching, but these works sold predominately less than his portraits.
As an artist, he contributed several drawings for the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Cole gained brief but everlasting notoriety in 1987 when he was named as the world's oldest man, succeeding another notable supercentenarian, 111-year-old Norwegian skier Herman Smith-Johannsen.
Prices for Cole's works now sell up to nearly five-thousand dollars, and possibly even more on today's art market. When he died at the astounding age of 112 years and 136 days, Cole had staked his claim as being the oldest known artist ever.