Louise Gilbert, painter, printmaker, pacifist and political activist, was born in Portland, Oregon on April 12, 1913. She graduated from Lincoln High School prior to attending the Portland Museum School as a scholarship student. Louise and her sister, Jane, moved to San Francisco just prior to World War II. They both joined the Communist party and were union organizers. Louise assisted Anton Refregier with his mural at the Rincon Annex Post Office and later became a founding member of the Graphic Arts Workshop in San Francisco. She used her art to rally support for the peace movement, environmental causes, women's and gay and lesbian rights, farm workers and unions. A retrospective of her work, Art and Courage: the Life of and Work of Louise Gilbert, was mounted in 2005 in the Rosenberg Library of the City College of San Francisco. Louise Gilbert died in San Francisco on September 21, 2005.