Her mother and father died when she was young, and so she was educated at the Sarah Porter School in Farmington, Connecticut.

[3] In 1873, Talcott volunteered her services to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions as a missionary to the Kobe foreign settlement in Kobe, Japan (which had recently undergone the Meiji Restoration), arriving in March with two other single women; Talcott was thirty-seven at the time, and thus considered relatively old by missionary standards.

[4] As part of her activities in Japan, Talcott helped to establish Kobe Girls' School in 1874.

[4] Classes held at the school taught English, sewing, and singing, along with biblical study.

[5] In addition to her teaching, Talcott used her nursing skills to provide aid to wounded soldiers during the First Sino-Japanese War, working in Hiroshima.