[1][2] Most of her family members were art lovers; the stage actress Julia Dean was her aunt.

[3] After graduating from Cook's Collegiate Institute in 1873, she worked briefly as a teacher in New York state, then taught elocution at Milwaukee Female College.

This was a significant compliment in an era of oratory when speakers such as Charles Dickens and Mark Twain were paid thousands to read lengthy pieces of their work.

[1] After graduation she was appointed First Assistant to Lewis Baxter Monroe, Dean of the School of Oratory.

Baright based her teaching on Monroe's principle that "expression is the outward manifestation of that which is already in the consciousness.