Elsa Jemne attended the St. Paul Institute  (now the Minnesota Museum of American Art) before enrolling for formal studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.  She traveled to Europe through scholarships awarded by the Academy.  While in Italy, she became interested in fresco painting techniques, which were influential to her artistic career.  She achieved recognition throughout Minnesota for her many murals commissioned by the New Deal art projects, which were executed in places such as the Hutchinson Post Office, the Stearns County Courthouse, and the Minneapolis Armory.  As an important Minnesota artist, Jemne was an inspiration to other women, and in 1921, she helped found the St. Paul Women's City Club (former home to the Minnesota Museum of American Art) to help promote women's rights.