Flavia Camp was raised in
Black Earth, Wisconsin by her mother and step-father, the Congregational pastor Asa A. Allen, with a combined total of fifteen siblings, half-siblings, and step-siblings. She taught in a local school in her late teens, and went to the
University of Wisconsin in 1863, the first year it admitted women. Although she didn't speak any foreign languages, she made many trips to Europe with her daughter, for example studying art for a year in Paris. ==Organisational work==