A regional artist of Alaska, Nina Crumrine is most recognized for her pastel works of mid-19th century Native Alaskans.

Nina Crumrine was born in Indiana and trained at the Art Institute of Chicago. She lived in Seattle, where she gave birth to her daughter, Josephine (b. 1917), also an Alaska artist. In 1923, mother and daughter moved to Alaska to live with Nina's uncle, H.V. McGee, in Ketchikan.

Nina and Josephine were avid travelers, visiting every region of Alaska as well as South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Eventually Nina acquired land in Haines, Alaska, and when Josephine married, she and her husband, Robert Liddell, built a house on her mother's property.

Twenty-four of Nina's portraits of Native Alaskans were purchased by the Alaska territorial legislature in 1941. Her work is held in the collection of the Anchorage Museum of History and Art.

Source:

Kesler Woodward, "Painting in the North"