Bryant Tolles was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He has a B.A. degree in American Studies from Yale (1961), an MAT in History also from Yale (1962), and a Ph.D. in History (New England and American Studies) from Boston University (l970). Bryant was assistant dean at Tufts University from l965-71, assistant director of the New Hampshire Historical Society (Concord, NH) from l972 to 1974, executive director of the Essex Institute (Salem, MA) from 1974 to1984, and Professor of History and director of the Museum Studies Program at the University of Delaware from 1984 to 2006.

Now retired, he and his wife, Carolyn, live in Concord, New Hampshire, where he has devoted time to book projects, nonprofit trustee and committee work, and part-time teaching (Tufts, Harvard). Focusing primarily on American architectural history in his scholarship, he has lectured and published books on New Hampshire and Salem, Massachusetts, architecture; summer cottages in the White Mountains; resort hotels of the White Mountains, the Adirondacks and the New England coast; and, college and university architecture and campus planning in New England before 1860.