Dorothy Lake Gregory was born in New York City and demonstrated an early affinity for art. At seventeen, she visited Europe with her father for further exposure to art. Upon her return, she enrolled at the Pratt Institute in New York and studied with Robert Henri at the Art Student League. Gregory traveled to Provincetown in 1914 to study with Charles Webster Hawthorne. Her art expressed a tremendous range of styles and mediums. Gregory exhibited at many prestigious places, including the National Academy of Design, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Art and the Library of Congress.