Arthur Griffin Photo Archive

Arthur Griffin Photo Archive

Arthur Griffin was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on September 12, 1903. Originally trained to be an illustrator, in 1929 he picked up his first camera — a second-hand folding Brownie — and thus began a passion that would last a lifetime.

By the mid-1930’s, Arthur Griffin had become the exclusive photographer for the newly created Boston Globe Rotogravure Magazine and the New England photojournalist for Life and Time magazines. He went on to become a pioneer in the use of color film and provided the first color photographs to appear in the Saturday Evening Post — a two-page layout on New England.

The Boston Public Library has been digitizing photo archives, books, maps, manuscripts, prints, and other library materials so that they may be accessible online. The goal of this project is to grow and support Digital Commonwealth, a consolidated statewide digital library system. The BPL has been digitizing the Arthur Griffin Archive.

A portion of Arthur Griffin’s vast archive has been scanned and identified by the Boston Public Library for the Digital Commonwealth. These links take you off the Griffin Museum website. In addition, this subset of his vast archive is also available at the Digital Public Library of America.

Griffin’s legacy lives on through the Griffin Museum of Photography. Madison Marone, an Exhibitions Assistant at the museum, created this series to highlight and provide context for his work so viewers may experience it in new and exciting ways. Illuminating the Archive of Arthur Griffin: Photographs 1935-1955, looks at New England’s cultural heritage, traditions, and aesthetic through the lens of Griffin’s lesser-known work. This six-part exhibition explores how photography enhances our relationship with and understanding of the past. Each exhibit features historical, sociological, and creative interpretations of photographs from the museum’s collection.