Her father, Nathan Adlow, emigrated as a youth from Kazarez, Poland, and opened a furniture store in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston.

At her mother's urging, and despite her father's warnings that "if she gets too educated, she'll never marry," she went on to earn a bachelor's and a master's degree from Radcliffe College, graduating in 1923.

[2] After college, Adlow worked briefly for the Boston Evening Transcript before beginning a 41-year career as an art critic for The Christian Science Monitor.

She also appeared frequently on television programs produced by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[3] and taught at the Katharine Gibbs School.

She kept her maiden name and continued working, providing a small, but steady income for the household while her husband's fortunes fluctuated.