Mary Ernestine Rabson McMasters was born in Chicago and met her husband, Ward McMasters, at the Trianon Ballroom in 1925. She became a nature photographer after being inspired by a trip to Turkey Run State Park, IN and the Indiana Dunes.

The Chicago Parks held a photography competition in connection with the 1933 Century of Progress Fair. Mary won first place out of 5,000 entries with her photo “Early Spring” taken the year before. As she was about to deliver son Donald at the time, Mary’s husband Ward ended up taking the photography lessons she won as her prize, thus spawning the long held family vocation.

The family moved to Lake Forest in 1939. Mary and Ward McMaster took photos of most of the weddings, debuts, and parties in town and were the school photographers for the local public and private schools from 1940 to the 1960s. Until they purchased a car in 1948, the McMasters could be seen riding their bikes to assignments with cameras in their bike baskets. The couple traveled to many states and 30 nations sharing their photographs and slides with local schools and clubs. They developed everything in their own darkroom.

Mary McMasters also wrote and took photos for local papers and was instrumental in launching interest in saving Gorton School from demolition to create a community center. She was also very active in local Girl Scouts as a troop leader in Lake Forest.

Mary McMasters was active in the post-WWII Ground Observer Post on the roof at Halsey School to identify low flying aircraft and to call the information into central stations. Lake Forest’s code name was “Charley Nan Zero One Red.”