[1] Van Dresser spent her early life in Memphis and later studied for opera with Hermine Bosetti and Jean de Reszke.

She was a member of the Famous Original Bostonians before joining Alice Nielsen Company in 1898 for Victor Herbert's The Fortune Teller and Singing Girl.

She studied voice in New York City with Sarah Robinson-Duff, herself trained in Paris by Mathilde Marchesi.

[2] Van Dresser appeared as an actress in 1902 with Otis Skinner in a revival of George Henry Boker's Francesca da Rimini.

[2] In April 1918 she appeared at Aeolian Hall singing Haydn in Italian, Debussy and Fauré in French.