A Baltimore native, Helen Jacobson graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art and got her professional start illustrating ads for local Maryland department stores. Her own art was classified as abstract-expressionist and her showings won her praise from area art critics. She had a solo show at the Baltimore Museum of Art and her work there is in the permanent collection. According to the Baltimore Sun, in 1959 “she was the only Marylander to receive an invitation to show in the Art U.S.A. '59 show held in New York. There her work, in competition with artists from across the country, won one of the three regional prizes awarded at the show."

In an interview a year later, Jacobson said that abstract painting "is part of the long struggle toward the artist's expression of what he thinks and feels about life.“ 

She began teaching at Towson State College in 1964 and remained on our faculty until 1980. 

written by Felicity Knox, Archives Associate, Spring 2021