Born in Canada, Buchanan grew up in Springfield, Illinois and Pittsburg, Kansas, where her father was a newspaper editor.

[4] Much of Buchanan's work featured social issues such as slavery, women’s rights, poverty, and early settlement of the California frontier.

Among her works were “The Young Lincoln” (1927), “The Spirit of the West Going Forward” (1917) , and “Navaho Indian and Zuni Girl” (1931).

In 1938, her smaller-scale sculptures of cowboys, Indians and soldiers toured California as part of the WPA Federal Art Exhibition.

The downtrodden figures around her represent Degradation, Vanity, Conventionality, and the Wage Earner, all of whom rely on the suffragist to lift them up.