Marion Post Wolcott was born in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1910. She was sent away to boarding school during her teens while her parents went through a bitter divorce. She later worked her way through college as a teacher of young children, while studying early childhood education at the New School for Social Research and later New York University.

Whenever possible, Marion Post Wolcott visited her mother Nan in Greenwich Village, where Nan was working with Margaret Sanger, the famous birth control and women's health advocate. There mother and daughter were part of an elite circle of writers and artists.

In 1932 Marion Post Wolcott went to Europe to study dance at Paris and later education at Vienna. Her sister Helena was already in Vienna studying photography. There Marion met photographer Trude Fleischmann, Helen's professor, who praised some of Marion Post Wolcott's photographs and suggested that she also pursue a career in photography.

In Vienna, because the intellectual circle they frequented contained many Jews and socialists, Marion and Helen experienced first hand the rise of the Nazis. They were actively involved helping the children of persecuted socialist workers when the University of Vienna was closed, and they were forced to return to America.

Marion Post Wolcott became politically active in America upon her return. She also pursued her interest in photography and began attending meetings of the New York Photography League. There the attractive Post came to the attention of Paul Strand and Ralph Steiner, who invited her to the avant-garde gathering of photographers who met regularly at Steiner's apartment. Through these contacts Post met Elia Kazan and worked on his People of the Cumberlands, a film about union organizing in the South. Meanwhile Steiner sent her portfolio to Roy Stryker, who hired her for the Farm Security Administration, where she worked from 1938 to 1941.

In 1941 Post married Lee Wolcott, an assistant to Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace. She never again worked as a professional photographer, though she remained artistically active her entire life. Marion Post Wolcott died in 1990.

Learn about other Arkansas photographers, such as Russell Lee and Ben Shahn.