Her father was an ordained clergyman who taught at General Theological Seminary in New York City.

[2] She earned a master's degree in archaeology at Bryn Mawr in 1929, and pursued further studies at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens from 1930 to 1931, and at Bryn Mawr as a Greek fellow in 1931 to 1932.

[5] In 1951, she was elected secretary of the Washington Society, a local chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America.

[6] She represented the Washington Society as a delegate to the annual meetings of the institute in the 1950s.

[4] The Katharine Shepard Fund at the National Gallery of Art is used to acquire 17th-century and 18th-century European prints.