Alice Egan was born in Halifax in 1872. She attended Mount Saint Vincent Academy and the Victoria School of Art and Design (later the Nova Scotia College of Art), as well as at the Osgood Art School in New York. One of her first commissions came when she was selected to paint twelve plates for the Lady Aberdeen State Dinner Set, presented to Lady Aberdeen by the Canadian Senate at the time of the retirement of her husband as Governor General in 1898. In 1901 Alice Egan married John Hagen, an official of the Halifax and Bermuda Cable Company, and in 1910 transferred with him to Jamaica where she continued to work and teach. Her work was widely exhibited in the Islands and for her contribution to art in Jamaica Mrs. Hagen was awarded the bronze, and later the silver Sir Anthony Musgrave Medals, the first woman to be so honoured. In 1916 the Hagens returned to Halifax, settling finally in 1932 in Mahone Bay, where Alice Hagen began a new career as a potter, teaching, exhibiting and winning awards. Forty-eight pieces of her handpainted china, glass and pottery were presented to the Nova Scotia government and are displayed at the Citadel Museum in Halifax. Alice Mary Hagen died in January, 1972.

Elizabeth Dundas Long was a Canadian journalist and broadcaster who was head of the Women's Talks Department at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on October 10, 1891, Long was educated at the University of Manitoba where she received her Master of Arts in English Poetry. In 1920 she began working as Reporter of Women's Activities for the Winnipeg Tribune and in 1922 became Editor of the Social and Women's Department at the Winnipeg Free Press. Long worked there until 1926 when she became Associate Editor of the Free Press Prairie Farmer. In 1938 Long joined the CBC, the first woman to be hired by the corporation in an executive capacity, as head of women's interests. She later worked as special advisor to the CBC on women's interests until her retirement in 1956. During this time, and in her retirement years, she held many positions such as Vice President of the International Council of Women. Long died in 1978.