Elva Fromuth Loe was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1918, where she earned a BFA degree in art education at the Moore Institute for Art in 1942. She was originally hired as a home economics instructor at Gallaudet in 1947. In 1953, she was selected as chair of the newly established Art Department, and helped design the curriculum for the art program, including student trips to New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other locations to view art. She earned a MA in art education at Catholic University in 1960. Loe consulted with the architect on the design of the Washburn Arts Center, which was opened in 1969.

Loe was also faculty adviser to the Delta Epsilon sorority after it was established in 1953. She retired from Gallaudet in 1967 and moved to Spain and later France, where she continued to study and write about art, including the work of her uncle, Charles Henry Fromuth. She wrote the article on Juan Fernández Navarrete for The Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People and Deafness. Elva F. Loe was disabled by a stroke in 2001 and passed away in 2005.

Juan Fernández Ximenes de Navarrete, later known as “El Mudo,” was born to a noble family in Logrono, Spain, in 1526 and lost his hearing at the age of three. He received no formal education and never learned to speak, but was literate and could express himself in natural signs. When he showed a talent for drawing, he was put in the care of a monk, who arranged for him to travel to Italy to view the work of Italian masters and study with them, in particular Titian. He spent almost twenty years in Italy, returning to Spain at the summons of King Philip II in 1560. Navarrete worked for several years as a restorer and copier of paintings before being made painter to the king in 1568. He produced many paintings on religious subjects, several of which King Philip exhibited in the royal palace and monastery at El Escorial. Among his most highly regarded works are Abraham Receiving the Three Angels, The Beheading of the Apostle St. James Mayor, and The Nativity of Our Lord. Navarrete passed away in 1579; at the time of his death, he had contracted to paint 32 large pictures for the Escorial church’s side altars, but completed only eight.