John Taylor Arms is one of the most celebrated American printmakers of the early 20th century. Trained as an architect at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  Arms served in the Navy during World War I, where he fell in love with European architecture, especially the gothic cathedrals that he believed were man's greatest architectural achievements to date.   During the 1920s, Arms began to devote himself to etching, working in England, France, and Italy as well as the U.S.  He is known for his unsurpassed attention to architectural detail, often achieved with the aid of a magnifying glass and sewing needle in the etching ground.  The prints of John Taylor Arms are in countless major collections,  including the Library of Congress, the British Museum, and the Bibliotheque Nationale.