Loren Roberta Barton, painter, printmaker, illustrator, educator, and lecturer, was born in Oxford, Massachusetts on 16 November 1893 and her family moved to Los Angeles when she was a child. Barton studied with William Lees Judson at the University of Southern California and with Rex Slinkard at the Art Students League of Los Angeles.

Barton began her career working in intaglio and oil. Her work was featured in the Exhibition of Paintings by Loren R. Baron, Mabel Alvarez, Paul Lauritz, which opened 16 November 1920 at the Los Angeles Museum. She was included in a number of shows in the 1920s and by 1929 she was touring Europe. While in Europe, Barton met Perez R. Babcock whom she married in 1930 and the couple lived in Italy until 1937. During this period, Barton worked as an illustrator, fulfilling commissions from New York publishers to illustrate books.

Upon her return to Los Angeles, Barton exhibited regularly in the California Water Color Society Annuals. Her works were shown throughout the Los Angeles region, including at the Stendahl Gallery, Cannell and Chaffin Gallery, the Ebell Club, and at the Los Angeles and the Santa Barbara Museums. She taught watercolor techniques at the Chouinard Art Institute between 1941 and 1947.

Barton was a member of and exhibited with the American Federation of Arts; American Watercolor Society; Brooklyn Society of Etchers; California Society of Printmakers; Chicago North Shore Art Association; Chicago Society of Etchers; National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors; Pen and Brush Club of New York; and the Print Society of English Clubs. She was also a Fellow in the Royal Society of Arts, London. Her work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Brooklyn Museum; Detroit Institute of Arts; Pomona College; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Los Angeles Public Library; National Gallery of Art; New York Public Library; San Diego Museum; Smithsonian American Art Museum; and the Society of California Pioneers, San Francisco.

In 1951, Barton married Jervis Russell Miller and her last years were spent in Pomona, California. Loren Roberta Barton Babcock Miller died in Claremont, California on 27 May 1975.