Grace Libby Vollmer was born September 12, 1884 in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and grew up in Chelsea, just north of Boston. Her parents were both of old New England stock dating back to the 17th century. Her father, Edgar Howard Libby, was a native of Maine and a graduate of Amherst College. He is reported to have edited an "agricultural paper" before gaining success through an irrigation project in the state of Washington. Her mother, Anne Lorraine (née Young), was a direct descendant of two original Mayflower Pilgrims, William Bassett and William White). Grace and her elder sister, Zuriel, were educated at Howard Seminary and later attended Qunicy Mansion School for Girls in Wollaston Park, Massachusetts. The latter was a finishing school for young ladies established in the former home of Josiah Quincy, onetime president of Harvard University, to foster the arts. It was here that Grace Libby's artistic talents were first recognized. A number of surviving early sketches demonstrate that she had drawn from an early age. In 1896, E.H. Libby, traveling in the West for his health, realized the opportunity of developing by means of irrigation a barren stretch of land directly across the Clearwater River from Lewiston, Idaho. With the financial backing of Charles Francis Adams, former president of the Union Pacific Railroad and grandson of John Quincy Adams, the project proved a success, leading to the founding of the town of Clarkston, Washington. In 1899, in cooperation with Lewiston's leading banker, John Philip Vollmer, Libby built a toll bridge over the Clearwater connecting the two towns. J.P. Vollmer is regarded as Idaho's first millionaire. He had amassed a large fortune by controlling the spur line he had persuaded the Northern Pacific Railroad to build between Spokane and Lewiston. As a banker, he came to own over 35,000 acres of property, much of it through foreclosure. E.H. Libby moved his family to Clarkston in 1901, before either of his daughters had a chance to graduate from Quincy Mansion. In 1906 Grace Libby married Ralston Vollmer, at that time manager of one of his father's banks. A son, John Philip Vollmer II, was born in 1907 and a daughter, Anne Lorraine Vollmer, in 1911. Little is known of the family's activities for the next several years, although they visited California (Berkeley) as early as 1909 and lived in Los Angeles between 1910 and 1914, returning there permanently in June 1917. With her children both enrolled in private schools in Pasadena, Grace was able to devote more of her time to painting. In 1925 she resumed her career by enrolling in the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles for two years. Here she established a life-long association with Clarence Hinkle, Jean Mannheim (who painted her daughter's portrait), Millard Sheets, and George Brandriff. Her first one-person exhibition took place in 1926 at Cannell & Chaffin, Los Angeles, where 142 of her works were shown. The same year she won an Honorable Mention at the Orange County Fair. Grace Vollmer studied briefly with Hans Hoffman in 1930 when Hoffman was affiliated with the Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles. Hoffman's influence can be seen in a bolder, more expressionistic style in Vollmer's subsequent work. A second encounter with Hoffman occurred in Berkeley later in the decade. In 1928 Grace and Ralston Vollmer took a long trip to France and Egypt, where she painted actively, returning briefly to the art colony in Laguna Beach. With the coming of the Great Depression, Ralston lost much of his money when the banks failed. A move to the art colony in Taos, New Mexico, was partly for financial reasons, but resulted in a particularly productive artistic period, because Grace was captivated by the light and ambience of the area. Reduced circumstances forced a return to Los Angeles, where a number of family members lived along Avenue 64 in the Eagle Rock district, including her widowed sister, an aunt and her family, and her mother with whom they lived briefly. In the mid 1930s, the Vollmers lived at 777 Coast Boulevard North in Laguna Beach. A granddaughter was born here in 1936. Ralston was employed at the time as an agent of the Franklin Fire Insurance Company, and Grace opened her studio to students. A final move occurred in 1939 when the Vollmers moved to Santa Barbara into a house they had build for them at 158 Middle Road (since renumbered) in Montecito on grounds that contained the stables of the old Santa Barbara Polo Club. The house included a large studio with a skylight facing north toward Montecito Peak and a wing to accommodate Grace's widowed sister, who made the move with them. The Vollmers only son, John, died in early 1940 in Alameda County, a reported suicide. Their only daughter died in 1945, followed the next year by Ralston's death. The review of a one-person show at the Art and Frame Shop, Santa Barbara, in 1958 (the last in the artist's lifetime) sums up Grace Vollmer's accomplishments as an painter. "The current exhibit reveals the sober intensity of a mature artist. A dozen still lifes and a landscape show a firm mastery of technique and point of view. Mrs. Vollmer's work has a sureness that commands respect." Grace continued painting until she gave up her house in 1971 and moved to a condominium at 127 East Valerio Street in Santa Barbara. The ground floor condo looks today exactly as it did when Grace Vollmer lived there. For the last quarter of her life, Grace Vollmer was an active follower of the Baha'i religion. Grace Libby Vollmer died November 25, 1977 at the age of 93.