Painter, printmaker, and art educator and writer Barbara Whipple was born on June 16, 1921, in San Francisco, California to George Hoyt and Katharine Ball Whipple. She earned her B.A. from Swarthmore College (1943) and her M.F.A. from the Tyler School at Temple University (1961). Additionally, she earned a B.S. from Rochester Institute of Technology (1956). In the early 1970s she lived in Pennsylvania with her husband, former college classmate and photographer Grant Heilman, where she became involved in the Philadelphia art scene as a printmaker and watercolor artist. In 1976 they relocated to Colorado.

Whipple worked as a graphic and fine artist as well as a teacher and writer. She was an editor for American Artist magazine in the early 1980s and published several books on art and artists, among them, Art for the child from 6 to 9 (1956); Luigi Rist: Printmaker (1971); and was a co-writer of Water Media Techniques with Stephen Quiller (1983). She taught at Rochester School for the Deaf (1956-58); SUNY Geneseo State Teachers College (assoc. prof. art, 1958-59); Elizabethtown College in PA. (1973 - 1976), Franklin & Marshall College (11974 - 1976), and conducted workshops at Adams State College (1982), Colorado Graphic Arts Center (1980, 1982), and Sangre de Cristo Art Center, Pueblo, CO (1985). She was on the Board of Directors at Swarthmore from 1970 to 1976.

While living in Buena Vista, Colorado Whipple became a central figure in the arts and outdoors scenes, often combining her two passions in her personal work. She was instrumental in founding Arkansas Valley Council on the Arts with Heilman, and opened a gallery in Buena Vista on Main Street. In 1990, one year after her death, the city honored her pioneering art and nature work with a trail in her name, the Barbara Whipple Trail System.

Barbara Whipple died on November 26, 1989.

Collections:
Newark Public Librabry (NJ): Elizabethtown College (PA); Lancaster Country Day School (PA); Jr. League Lancaster (PA).

Memberships:
National Association of Women Artists; Women Artists of Southern California; Associated Artist of San Luis Valley; Foothills Art Center; National Museum of Women in the Arts (co-founder); Chaffee County Council on the Arts (president, 1988); Philadelphia Water Color Club; Philadelphia Art Alliance; and the Philadephia Print Club.