Emily Harris Selinger graduated from the Providence (Rhode Island) High School, then attended the Cooper Institute of Design in New York City.  She also studied with Amalia Rocchi in Florence and Margaret Roosenboom in Holland.  She married the painter, Jean Paul Selinger, in 1882.  Emily Selinger was a painter, an author and poet, who was active in Boston around 1904-1910.  In 1882, she went to Europe for three years, traveling in Germany, Florence, and Venice.  She was special European art correspondent for the Boston Evening Transcript.  She painted Venetian scenes. 

On returning to the United States, she settled in a studio and apartment on Boylston Street in Boston.  In 1894, the Selingers moved to the Crawford House as successors to Frank Shapleigh.  Emily painted watercolors and oils of flowers and fruits.  She was instrumental in establishing the Normal Art School in Louisville, Kentucky, and was a prolific writer of monologues, articles on art, short stories, poems, and greeting cards. Selinger exhibited at the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association in Boston where she was awarded two silver medals, at the Providence and Boston Art Clubs, and won first prize at several local and state art shows.