Born in Gardener, Massachusetts in 1876, painter, writer and teacher Emma Alice (Polly) Parker Nordell studied at the Rhode Island School of Design under Stacy Tolman and Sydney R. Burleigh, Art Students League under Frank DuMond and Robert Henri, Chase School of Art with William Merritt Chase in New York City and at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere in Paris under the tutelage of Lucien Simon and Emile Menard. Nordell was a member of the American Women’s Art Association of Paris, Guild of Boston Artists, North Shore Art Association, Copley Society, New York Watercolor Club and Providence Art Club. Nordell exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, Panama Pacific Exhibition, Copley Gallery, Boston Art Club, American Women's Art Association of Paris, Guild of Boston Artists, Richards Gallery and at the Gallery-On-The-Moors in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Her works are held in the Louise and Alan Sellars Collection.