Carroll Thayer Berry was born and raised in New Gloucester, Maine. The son of a dairy farmer, Berry did not want to follow in his parents' footsteps. Instead, he enrolled at the University of Michigan and became an engineer. He returned to New England in 1909 as a mechanical draftsman for an engineering company in Boston where he took art classes at night.

In 1910, Berry travelled to Panama to participate in the construction of  the Panama canal. He contracted malaria and was sent home where he returned to his art studies, this time at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Berry returned to Panama as an inspector of construction and, after his artistic skills were noticed by government officials, Berry was commissioned to paint a series of large murals celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. A year later, Berry moved to New York City where he became a commercial artist. In 1917, Berry enlisted during World War I and was assigned to the American Camouflage Corps, where alongside a number of other artists and designers, he created camouflage designs for soldiers in the field. After World War I, Berry settled in Chicago and worked as a designer of installations and interiors for office buildings.

During the Depression, Berry returned to Maine, moving to Wiscasset where he focused on printmaking. His subjects included the limestone mills in Rockland, the windjammers of Rockport and Camden harbors, local fishermen and lobstermen, Deer Isle and Port Clyde, among others. Berry wanted his prints to be available to as many people as possible and sold them for $5 each in the 1950s. Eventually an artist confronted him about his prices, saying others artists couldn’t compete. Although Berry raised his prices, he never sold a print for more than $15. After World War II, Berry bought a three-story brick building that served as his studio in Rockport, Maine.