Samuel Kravitt was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1913. In 1929 he dropped out of high school intending to become a pilot but decided to pursue a career in photography after borrowing a World War I aerial camera. He opened his first portrait studio in 1932. Under the WPA Federal Arts Project he was one of four photographers. Ten of his photographs were exhibited at the New Haven Tercentenary Exhibition. From 1937 until 1939 Kravitt documented the construction of the New York World’s Fair. In 1962 he started a film production company that created educational, medical, and civic films. His work is now housed in the collections of many prominent institutions including the Library of Congress, the New York State Museum, the Wolfsonian-Florida International University Museum of Art and Design, and Yale University. In the early 70s tragedy struck his family. His daughter, Mary Jane Kravitt, was murdered in her San Francisco apartment. Samuel Kravitt vowed to hunt down the killer and traveled to dozens of countries trying unsuccessfully to find him. Kravitt died in 2000.

Sources: Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2004/04-039.html); “He Hunts Daughter’s Killer,” The Hartford Courant, July 20, 1972.