After studying at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Densmore conducted research in Indian music for the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1907. She subsequently worked with both the Bureau and the Smithsonian Institution and conducted a survey of Gulf Coast Indians for the National Research Council. In her published work she provided a new conception of the Indian, giving detailed analyses of the music and the circumstances under which songs were created and sung. She received the 1940–41 award of the National Association for American Composers and Conductors for her contributions to American musicology and conducted studies for a number of American museums and other organizations, including the Library of Congress. In 1941–43 she was consultant to the National Archives and established the Smithsonian–Densmore Collection of sound recordings of American Indian music.