Her father and maternal grandparents were all immigrants from central Europe; her mother was a policewoman[2] who collected theatrical sketches.

[8] The article sketches the life of Master Juba, a black American dancer active in the mid-19th century.

"[9] Winter moved to France in her later years, where she worked as a translator and collected art and ephemera related to fairs and festivals.

[12] Of her 1974 book, The Pre-Romantic Ballet, one reviewer said that "Some historians have an ability to write about the remote past as if they were giving a first-hand account of personal experience.

[19] The Marian Hannah Winter Professorship in Theatre and Dance Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was named in her memory.