From 1905 to 1907, Putnam studied modeling under Mary E. Moore and Bela Pratt in Boston; the following three years were spent in New York at the Art Students' League under James Earle Fraser . She also studied for a time at the Corcoran Art School in Washington and, later, her artistic education was continued in Florence, Italy, where she went in 1927 to study with Libero Andreotti. She completed her studies back in New York under Alexander Archipenko.
Early in her career, Putnam became known as a sculptor of figures of children and garden and fountain pieces, a number of which she exhibited in Philadelphia and New York. One example, the Sea Horse Sundial, destined for the estate of Mrs. Herbert Sattorlee, won the Barnett Prize at the National Academy where it was shown in the winter of 1922 (cat. no. 117). Putnam's busts of children and several fountain figures were included in Academy exhibitions beginning in 1911. By 1927, her desire to pursue other genres as well as a more modern aesthetic had prompted her to go to Italy.
Putnam proved an ability at portraiture, evidenced early on by her memorial to Anne Simon for Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington. She executed a relief of William Dean Howells for the Academy of Arts and Letters and a bust of Harriet Beecher Stowe for New York University's Hall of Fame. Her portrait of Amelia Earhardt is at Syracuse University and a bust of her father, Herbert Putnam, is at the Library of Congress where he was Librarian from 1899 to 1929. She was also successful in procuring a number of public sculpture commissions including those for marble reliefs for post offices in Caldwell, N. Y., and St. Cloud, Minnesota, and for the House of Representatives wing at the Capitol in Washington. Her Puck Fountain (1932) is also in Washington, gracing the west side of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Putnam taught sculpture at various institutions for over thirty years and in 1939 she brought her wide knowledge of sculptural techniques together in her book, The Sculptor's Way. In the early 1950s, she retired to Wilton, Connecticut, and, in 1971, moved to Concord, New Hampshire, where she died. Among her many awards was the Watrous Gold Medal, given for her sculpture, Midsummer, by the National Academy in 1935 (cat. no. 274).
