Edna Boies Hopkins was born in Hudson, Michigan in 1872.  She attended the Art Academy of Cincinnati and then went to New York in 1899 where she enrolled at the Pratt Institute studying with Arthur Wesley Dow who introduced her to the color woodcut.   In 1904 she married James R. Hopkins and their year-long honeymoon was spent traveling the world.  

A lengthy stay in Japan allowed Hopkins the opportunity to learn the techniques of woodblock printmaking.  They lived primarily in Paris until the outbreak of World War I after which they returned to Cincinnati, Ohio.  Summers were spent in Provincetown, MA and Maine teaching and creating woodcuts.  Hopkins’ work was exhibited at the 1915 Pan Pacific International Exposition, Art Institute of Chicago and the Provincetown Art Association.

Hopkins died in Detroit, Michigan in 1937 after a long illness