She graduated from Chattanooga High School in 1904, and attended Western College in Oxford, Ohio.

During the 1930s she headed a state-wide project to collect and copy county records, funded by the Works Progress Administration.

[12][13] In 1970, a portrait of Allen was unveiled at the annual dinner of the Chattanooga Area Historical Association, and donated to the Tennessee State Library.

Her personal collection of papers related to Cherokee history is in the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

[17] Another collection of hers, papers related to the Brainerd Mission, is archived at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.