By the time she was fifty, Marjory Stoneman Douglas could look back with satisfaction on a varied career that included working as a reporter, columnist, and editor for the Miami Herald and success as a short-story writer. But her most significant work began in the mid-1940s, when she agreed to write a book on the Florida Everglades. The resulting volume, The Everglades: River of Grass, became an instant best-seller following its publication in 1947. More important, it called attention to the great ecological importance of this vast expanse of water and wildlife and to the need for preserving it. Eventually Douglas and her book provided the impetus for founding the Friends of the Everglades, which became a major force in the campaign to protect the natural integrity of the Everglades against a host of human-created abuses.

When artist Menden Hall saw Douglas on a television talk show, he was "fascinated with her looks" and became determined to paint her. Several years later, he simply showed up at her door unannounced, and so began the series of sittings that led to this portrait.