Electra Havemeyer Webb was born on August 16, 1888 — the youngest child of sugar magnate Henry Osborne Havemeyer and his wife, Louisine Elder, a prominent art collector and early American feminist.

In her youth, Electra traveled widely with her parents throughout the American West and Europe, where she encountered Impressionist artists such as Mary Cassatt and Edward Degas, who were close friends of her parents, their patrons.

In 1910, she married polo champion James Watson Webb II, a great-grandson of railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, and a son of Lila Vanderbilt Webb, who established Shelburne Farms. In this way, Electra was introduced to Shelburne.

She and her husband shared a love of the outdoors, which they mainly expressed through horseback riding, fox hunting, and through big game hunting expeditions in the Adirondacks and Alaska.

During World War I, Electra served as an ambulance driver in New York City, and was named Assistant Director of the American Red Cross Motor Corps. During World War II, she joined the Civilian Defense Volunteer Organization, and directed the Pershing Square Civil Defense Center and its blood bank.

Ever since she was a little girl, Electra loved to collect items that she considered beautiful — yet in contrast to the “fine art” collected by her parents, Electra was attracted to the simple beauty of everyday objects made by American craftsmen.

She collected quilts, toys, weathervanes, decoys, ceramics, glassware, firearms, carriages, dolls, tools, sleighs, pewter, handpainted signs, and other vernacular objects, finding a quintessentially “American” quality in these ordinary items.

In 1947, she founded Shelburne Museum to house her collection of collections, and was among the first to exhibit this so-called “Folk Art” in a museum setting.

She conceived of the museum itself as a collection of buildings — twenty-five of which were moved to Shelburne from around the State of Vermont, each building housing a collection of a particular kind of item, all impeccably organized.

In 1913, Electra and her husband, “Watson,” received The Brick House as a wedding present from William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb. They later expanded this modest 1840 farmhouse into a forty-room masterpiece of the Colonial Revival style, decorated with items from Electra’s collections.

Electra and Watson gave birth to five children: Electra (1910–1982), Samuel Blachley (1912–1988), Lila Vanderbilt (1913–1961), James Watson (1916–2000), and Harry Havemeyer (1922–1975).

In 1947, Electra and Watson offered living space in their Brick House for their newly-married youngest son, Harry, and his wife, Kate de Forest Jennings.

In 1948, Harry and Kate were given the land that would become High Acres Farm, to establish a home of their own for their nascent family in Shelburne.

Four years later, in 1952, the Main House at High Acres Farm was completed.

Electra died on November 19, 1960 in Burlington, Vermont.