Ruth Mae Morris was born in Chicago in 1898. Her parents were both scions of prominent families involved in the meat-packing industry in Chicago:
Edward Morris, son of the founder of
Morris & Company,
Nelson Morris; and
Helen Swift Morris, daughter of
Gustavus Swift, founder of
Swift & Co. She was educated at
Wellesley College and
Cornell University Medical School. While at Cornell, Bakwin started a fund to assist students at the school with financial need. In 1925, Ruth and
Harry Bakwin married in Paris. Harry was also a pediatrician, and he had been one of the first physicians to diagnose a patient with
autism. While the Bakwins were in postgraduate training in Europe, they took up art appreciation. On a return visit to Europe in the late 1920s, they purchased
Vincent van Gogh's 1890 version of ''
L'Arlésienne''. The Bakwins befriended several well-known artists, including
Diego Rivera and
Chaïm Soutine. Ruth Bakwin studied with
Anna Freud in Vienna. In 1950, she received the
Elizabeth Blackwell Award for her distinguished career in pediatrics from the New York Infirmary. In 1983, she won the Alumnae Achievement Award at Wellesley College. ==Personal life and death==