Rose Marasco papers, 1923-1937, 1992-2015

Full finding aid (pdf) | Domestic Objects (pdf)

Collection Scope and Content

This collection includes exhibit catalogs, photographs, research projects, prints and publicity materials. It contains the diary series of framed photographs from the domestic objects series, as well as the portrait photographs of Margaret J.M. Sweat, “Vinalhaven Women” and “Florence Burrill Jacobs”. It also contains research for the Sweat photographs, diaries purchased for research, and photographs for the MWWC’s 50th anniversary.

Biographical/Historical Note

Born in 1948, Rose Marasco is a fine art photographer in Portland, Maine. She has had significant one-person exhibitions at The Portland Museum of Art (1989 and 2015); Meredith Ward Fine Art Gallery in New York City (2014); the Houston Center for Photography (2010-11); Universite de Bretagne Occidentale in Brest, France (2008); Sarah Morthland Gallery in New York (2003, 2000 and 1998); The Davis Museum at Wellesley College (1995); and The Farnsworth Museum of Art in Rockland, Maine (1992). Her work has also been featured in numerous group shows of distinction, most notably at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Marlborough Gallery, Photokina, the International Polaroid Exhibition, University of New England Art Gallery and the Smith College Museum of Art. Marasco’s photographs are included in public collections including the Fogg Museum at Harvard University; Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection; The Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College; Photography Collection at The New York Public Library; The Portland Museum of Art; and the Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Marasco’s work has been highlighted in major publications including the New Yorker, New York, and The Chronicle of Higher Education magazines. Her exhibitions have been reviewed in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Village Voice, and Art New England among many others. Marasco has a B.F.A. from Syracuse University and a M.F.A. from the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York. She taught at the college level for 40 years, lecturing at many institutions including Harvard University, Bates College, Colby College, Massachusetts College of Art, and Parsons School of Design. In 2005 Marasco was awarded the Excellence in Photographic Teaching Award from the Santa Fe Center for Photography. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Art at the University of Southern Maine, where she initiated the photography department. In 1974, Marasco created the department at the School of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute in Utica, New York.