Born in Boston, Massachusetts. Attended Boston Latin School and received the Franklin Medal for academic excellence. Graduate Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College in 1854. He received a Masters Degree in 1857. He received an LL.D. in 1907. Married with two sons and two daughters. One daughter, Elizabeth Eliot Marvin, married Howland Wood.

His father was in the printing business. He joined the family firm of T. R. Marvin & Son, printers. Their plant was destroyed by fire in 1872. For some time they published the AJN. He was editor of The American Journal of Numismatics, the official journal of the ANS, for almost 40 years. He was editor from July 1891 until his death.

He was editor with Lyman Low of American Colonial History Illustrated by Contemporary Medals. It was published from notes in 1894 after the death of C. Wyllys Betts in 1887.

Marvin contributed additional material included in the book. Marvin was made a Mason in 1857. He was a prominent member of the Masons holding several offices. He was author of Medals of the Masonic Fraternity in 1880. He was an honorary member of the ANA and ANS. He was a member of the Boston Numismatic Society and a corresponding member of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia.

Marvin consigned coins to a Woodward sale in 1881. He died in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1984 he was elected to the ANA Numismatic Hall of Fame.

bio: CW/NM 8/4/76; NUM/NIN 11/94

obit: AJN 47 1913 pages 167-168 (photo); NUM 26 Mar 1913 pages 138-139 photo: NUM 27 Dec 1914 page 598