[7] Helen attended Brooklyn Heights Seminary,[4] then Smith College from 1904 to 1908, majoring in art history.
While studying art, she also sat for paintings, including two works by Eugene Speicher, "Red, White and Blue" (1914) and "Miss Helen Appleton" which won the 1911 Proctor Prize from the National Academy.
[5] The couple had daughter, Helen Read,[10] the following year,[8] by then residing at 38 Livingston Street in Brooklyn.
[7] Following the birth of her daughter, Helen Appleton Read returned to art history and criticism,[8] including authoring a book on her former painting teacher Robert Henri (1931).
[6] Appleton Read died on December 3, 1974, aged 87, at her Brooklyn Heights home at 146 Hicks Street,[6] a historic Federal townhouse built in 1826.