My recently deceased husband was an architect named Alfonso Carrara, and because my family was a generation younger than I, I really didn’t know that much about the Carrara family except for what my husband shared with me. They were immigrants that came here before 1900, they never knew how to read or write, except two sons of the family who were both architects in Chicago. I thought, “Hm, Okay… Arthur Carrara.” So I looked him up. And then I also was going through the archives of an immigrant family that lived in one house that they bought in 1920 […] and I was going through the excavation and I found Arthur Carrara’s Magnet Master. […] Arthur was an architect, but being an architect in the ‘40s/’50s/’60s, he was also an inventor. So with the then director of the Walker Art Museum, they developed these Magnet Masters for children 6 and under, but it’s very sophisticated.
[…]
I was so excited when I found these because it’s my history, and I love going through the archives. […] I’m so proud of this, that in fact it was manufactured in our basement which was owned then by the two brothers and their wives.

Exhibited by Gillian Carrara

Transcript edited by Serena Washington