The 2020 New England Journal of Photographic History, #178. This monograph by author Ron Polito, explores the lives, careers, and photographic techniques of Boston photographers Thomas E. Marr (1849-1910) and his son, Arthur {1877-1954). It is a quintessential American story. A young man rises from immigrant beginnings to gain patronage from some of the most successful individuals of the Gilded Age and early 1900s, including a wealthy, influential, sophisticated, and astute woman—Isabella Stewart Gardner.
The Marrs’ aesthetic and commercial relationship with Gardner and her museum benefitted both parties for many years, and brought widespread recognition to the Marr firm. It is also the story of a father and son who together built a wide-ranging photographic legacy, largely unknown today. While the firm outlived the father by three decades, it left the son’s life tinged with tragedy.
Full color: 122 pages, 84 photographs & illustrations; 11 tables; 4 appendices. © 2021
Published by the Photographic Historical Society of New England, Inc.
