Nell Dorr (1895–1989)

Follow the purple arrows on the signs as you walk

As a child, Nell Becker Dorr helped her father, Jacob Becker, in his darkroom near this site.  In her own words, she “learned the magic of the darkroom at her father’s side.”  She went on to become an internationally recognized fine art photographer.

Although she moved from Massillon as a young woman, she never forgot her adopted hometown nor the lifelong friendship she developed there with actress Lillian Gish.

Nell published several books of photography and poetry, most notably, Mother and Child.  She was included in Edward Steichen’s landmark 1955 photography exhibition, The Family of Man, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The Massillon Museum presented a major exhibition, Between Two Worlds: The Photography of Nell Dorr, in the winter of 2010/2011, and preserves a signifiant collection of the artist’s images, which are often exhibited in the Museum’s Photography Gallery.

Directions: Continue walking east along the back side of the Massillon Museum to the next corner.