Carl Cutler was born on August 12, 1878 in Kingston, Michigan, and was one of the three founders of the Marine Historical Association.

In 1882 the Cutlers moved to Rhode Island where Carl first experienced sailing and the sea. Later, in his 20th year, he made a voyage before the mast on the bark ALICE to New Zealand. After another year at sea he entered college, graduating from Brown University in 1903. After post graduate work at Columbia, Cutler was admitted to the bar in 1906 and began his law career with Anderson & Anderson in New York City

By 1911 Carl Cutler was a lawyer in Seattle, and later worked in British Columbia for a large logging firm. In 1913 he married Miss Helen Grant Irving, whose father owned a shipyard in West Mystic Connecticut. Two years later they moved East to New York where Carl resumed his career in law.

After World War I Cutler began to actively pursue a life-long interest, the history of American shipping. With thoroughness and dedication he spent years in research at libraries, custom houses, and seaports, from Rockland, Maine to Baltimore, Maryland. He searched the old shipyards and homes of old builders, where he found many original models and artifacts. He examined over 5000 logbooks, discovered and read uncounted numbers of manuscripts, and compiled from accurate sources over 30,000 index cards which recorded arrivals and departures for thousands of vessels. The result of this research was a book entitled, "Greyhounds of the Sea, the story of the American clipper ship," a book which, according to many, established Mr. Cutler as a dean among American maritime historians.

In 1928 Mr. and Mrs. Cutler moved to Mystic, Connecticut, where a year later Carl Cutler helped to found the Marine Historical Association. In 1938 he became General Manager and later Curator of the Association, and in effect directed the Museum until he retired in 1952.

As Curator Emeritus, Mr. Cutler continued his research and wrote the book, "Queens of the Western Ocean," a history of American packet ships. He also remained active in the Museum until his death on February 20, 1966.