Born of American parents, Sanford was raised in Warren, Pennsylvania and, in 1922, began her art studies at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. After that, she spent a time at her parents' home in Warren and then continued her studies in New York at the Art Students League under Leo Lentelli. From 1937 to 1940 she studied with and worked for Brenda Putnam for whose book The Sculptor's Way she provided illustrations. In 1937, she won a prize from the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors for her Diana and, in 1941, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. She began working with Cornelia Chapin in the late 1930s and the two sculptors established a studio together, first, during World War II, in New York, and then, in 1952, in Lakeville, Connecticut. Sanford became known for her genre sculptures, especially those depicting farm women at work (see below). More overt depictions of the inner life of women also interested her, epitomized by De Profundis, a figure of a woman enduring great grief which was exhibited at the National Academy in 1943 (cat. no. 29) and for which she won the Watrous Gold Medal.
Among her public works are the altar and reredos for St. Mary's Chapel, Faribault, Minnesota; a basÄrelief over the entrance to the Winder, Georgia, post office; and a large limestone statue, Hippocrates, for the hospital in Warren, Pennsylvania. A model of the last work was exhibited at the Academy in 1952 (cat. no. 13).
Sanford's work began appearing in Academy exhibitions in 1942. Besides the previously mentioned Watrous Medal, she won a oneÄthousand dollar prize here in 1947 for Dawn (cat. no. 44).
