Samuel S. Carr was born in England in 1837. He studied at the Royal School of Design in Chester before immigrating to the United States around 1862, where he settled in Brooklyn, New York.  He began exhibiting genre paintings in the 1870s. He was known for his paintings of children, seashore life and pastoral subjects.

Carr was a member of the Brooklyn Art Club. His work was exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Association, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the National Academy of Design. Carr’s work is included in permanent collections of the New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts.