Susan was the third child of John and Jane, with five younger siblings, including William A. Ketcham, Attorney General of Indiana from 1894-98.

The Ketcham children’s earliest art education came from the wife of Bishop Talbott, who taught them both music and painting at home.

[3] From about 1886-88, Ketcham joined her mother and two of her siblings on a trip to Europe “for music and health.” While in Florence, Italy, she felt the initial calling to become a painter and later found inspiration in Switzerland, where she started her studies.

Upon returning to the United States she enrolled in the Art Students League in New York in 1888, and that same year was elected a life member.

She remained in New York City for most of the next three decades, spending her summers in Ogunquit, Maine, and making periodic trips home to Indianapolis.

After Susan’s passing the John Herron Art Institute arranged a memorial exhibition of 22 paintings in the Marott Hotel.