Elise Fellows White, a native of Skowhegan, posed for a portrait playing her violin. White studied and performed in Maine, Boston, Canada, and Europe. After leaving Europe and until her death, White tried to return to elite society and to playing violin for sophisticated audiences.

Though she never broke out of her child prodigy status, White noted in her autobiography that her life was full of interesting and important people, from the heights of society to the western mining frontier.