She is the daughter of Spencer Baird Nichols, N.A. (1875-1950) and grew up in the world of art and artists. She is the granddaughter of Henry Hobart Nichols, a wood engraver who won a gold medal at the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia. Her uncle, Hobart Nichols was also an academician, and her daughter, Barbara J. Sussman is a landscape painter. Helen Jacobs learned her sense (showing 500 of 1467 characters).