Marion Holden Pope was born in San Francisco, California on September 11, 1872. A painter, printmaker, illustrator and lecturer, she studied at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute in San Francisco, and in Paris at the Acadamie Colarossi and with James A.M. Whistler.

Pope married in 1903 and from 1905 to 1915 she lived and studied in Los Angeles, and it was during this time that she worked on her book Illustrated Los Angeles from the Sierras to the Seas with poems by Charles F. Edson.  Between 1915 and 1940 she painted a series of portraits of California governors for which she is probably best known

She moved to Oakland where she was active in the arts, she was a member of the California Society of Etchers, the Chicago Society of Etchers, the Kingsley Art Club in Sacramento and the Laguna Beach Art Association. She exhibited her work in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento, where she lived later in her life. Her work is represented in the Carnegie Library, Oakland, and the State Capitol, Sacramento.

Marion Holden Pope died in San Francisco on August 21, 1958.