[2] She studied at the Pittsburgh School of Design, and then under William Merritt Chase on Long Island.
While in New York, she met Mary Helen Wingate Lloyd, who remained a lifelong friend.
Bakewell spent time in Europe, where she studied painting in Paris at the Académie Julian.
Upon her return to the United States the following year, she lived with her sister Mary in the Sewickley neighborhood of Pittsburgh, where she established her own bindery.
[3] In September 1918, she travelled to France with the YMCA's Educational Department to teach, read to, and give lectures to soldiers.