Evelyn Longman had a difficult and unhappy childhood. At the age of 14 she went to work for a wholesale dry goods store where she stayed for six years until earning enough money to begin studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. As an art student her talent was soon recognized; she was invited to work as an assistant instructor and was able to complete her course work in only two years, graduating with highest honors in 1900.

With only $40 in her pocket, she moved to New York City where she was hired by the well-known sculptor, Daniel Chester French. French both mentored Longman and sought her advice on his own designs; she worked closely with him on many of his major projects including the Lincoln Memorial. Longman's reputation continued to grow as she received important commissions and won major competitions.

In 1918, she was hired by Nathaniel Horton Batchelder, the Headmaster of the Loomis Institute, to sculpt a memorial to his late wife. Two years later she married Batchelder, moving to Connecticut at the height of her career. The dozens of works she completed in her 30 years in Connecticut include the Williams Memorial, for which she received a "gold medal" from the National Academy of Design, Aenigma, for which she received a prize from the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, a large bas-relief portrait of French for the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian, and the Spirit of Victory, Hartford's famous Spanish American War Memorial. At the time of her husband's retirement, Evelyn moved her studio to Cape Cod, where she died in 1954, one of the most respected and honored sculptors in American history.