Born on 23 November 1828, the third of six children, in Söderby in Uppland to the noble von Bahr family; her father was the major Robert von Bahr and Baroness Eva Carolina Åkerhielm af Margretelund, both from aristocrat families.

[4] Von Düben also took many landscape photographs of the Swedish mountains and waterfalls during her trips to Lapland.

Together with the work of Bertha Valerius and Rosalie Sjöman, von Düben's photographs constitute an important chapter in the history of Swedish photography.

[4] On 3 July 1868, the von Dübens left Stockholm by ship on the first expedition to Lapland, along with the assistant G. H. Santesson and the cook Johanna Björklund,[5] undertaking a study of the Sami people.

To document their findings, in 1873 Gustaf von Düben published Om Lappland och Lapparne, företrädesvis de Svenske: Ethnografiska Studier af Gustaf von Düben which was illustrated with his wife's photographs.