[6] Through working in a library in Seattle, she raised enough money to move to New York where she became part of the Art Students League.

[12] Proper and sculptor Malvina Hoffman, along with another member of the group, Heterodoxy, opened their own gallery space in New York City in 1912.

[13] Proper also became the editor of The Woman Voter in 1912, and used her ties to artists in New York to solicit work for the journal.

[17] With a group of women artists who were also suffragists, Proper then organized an art show at the galleries of William Macbeth for that autumn.

[18] [19] In the suffrage parade later that month, she marched dressed as a washerwoman, wearing a banner that read: "If politics are dirty, send for the cleaning woman.

[23] Proper was chosen to lead the contest and exhibition because she was the chair of the art committee of the Woman's Suffrage Campaign.

[25] Proper's paintings, exhibited "for Cause of Woman Suffrage" in 1915, were described by The New York Times as having a "gently exuberant quality.