Although she focused on printmaking during much of career as an artist, Ada Gilmore Chaffee was also a painter.

Gilmore was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1883. Before reaching the age of twelve, she and her three siblings became orphans. The four children moved to Ireland where they were raised by their aunt in Belfast. She first attended the Belfast School of Design, and later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. She received instruction from Robert Henri, a painter and printmaker known for his portraits and genre pieces, in 1912. Henri was also the instructor of Oliver Newberry Chaffee, whom Gilmore later married during the 1920s. Beginning in 1913, she obtained additional i...