[1] She early displayed a taste for art, but was encouraged to turn her talents elsewhere, so she enrolled in the Training School for Nurses at Northwestern Hospital for Women and Children and graduated in 1886.
During a two-year sojourn in England beginning in 1901 she traced her family's relationship to King Arthur and his court, with the result that much of her work became focused on medieval legends.
[2] Chant long had a reputation as an eccentric – in later years she dressed in an outré manner and claimed to talk to "spirits" – and in July 1917 concerns about her well-being led members of her family to have her arrested and committed to the Minnesota Sanitarium.
[1] On her release in 1920 she began a trip to China, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines, all of which she had visited in childhood; upon her return to the United States she settled in Wilmington, North Carolina, forswearing nearly all ties with her family.
In Wilmington Chant first attempted to establish an art colony; when prevented by limited finances and poor health, she turned her attention instead to supporting the local artistic community.