Gladys Ford Pratt was born on January 16, 1892 in Westfield, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of George F., a whipmaker, and Erminia Ford Pratt. After graduating from Westfield High School, she enrolled in Mount Holyoke College in 1910. She majored in English Literature and history and was a Sarah Williston Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In her junior year, she composed the music to the school's Alma Mater, which is still sung today. After graduating in 1914, she worked as an assistant in the College library. She attended Simmons College in July and August 1916, then left Mount Holyoke to enroll in George Washington University to study the history of art. While in Washington, she was a cataloger at the Smithsonian Institution Library. In February 1920, she became librarian at the Women's College in Delaware. In 1922-1923, 1930, and 1931 she studied library science at the University of Illinois, receiving an M.A. in 1931. She was a cataloger at the University of Illinois in 1922-23, an assistant at the Springfield, Massachusetts library in 1923-24 and librarian at the State Teachers College in Westfield, Massachusetts in 1924-1941. From 1941 to her retirement in 1957, she worked as a librarian at the State Teachers College in Framingham. From 1950-1978, she participated in the Framingham Heart Study. She moved back to South Hadley, Massachusetts after her retirement and worked part time organizing the library for the School of Nursing at Holyoke (Massachusetts) Hospital. She died on November 18, 1986 at the age of ninety-four in Holyoke, Massachusetts.