A child of missionaries to China, Culbertson returned to the United States when her father died from cholera. She studied at the Packer School in Brooklyn alongside her childhood friend Ida A. Johnson and later trained at the Art Students League in New York City under William Merritt Chase. Josephine and Ida lived together as “partners/artists,” and Culbertson exhibited at the National Academy of Design, New York Watercolor Society and Art Institute of Chicago. In 1906 she and Ida moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea. They quickly became prominent figures in Carmel’s cultural scene and contributed generously to myriad community causes. Culbertson was active with the Arts and Crafts Club, played the organ at the Methodist Church, and invited the public to her “Saturday Afternoons” studio gatherings at “Grey Gables,” their home on the corner of Lincoln and Seventh. There, on August 8, 1927, the Carmel Art Association was founded with 18 artists and six non-artists in attendance. The following year Culbertson lost an arm and the sight in one eye in a car crash in Berkeley. Despite this accident she continued to paint and exhibit oils and watercolors, revealing her understanding of light and atmosphere and her love for the natural world. In 1934 the Pine Cone named Culbertson one of the “Twelve Women Who Immortalized Carmel” as an artists’ colony. She remains recognized as one of the most referenced women artists of her time.