Ingrith Deyrup (1919-2004) was one of seven children that Alvin Johnson, president of the New School from 1922-1946, had with his wife Edith Henry Johnson. The children--Dorothy, Alden, Thorald, Natalie, Felicia, Ingrith and Astrith--adopted the surname Deyrup, a version of Johnson's Danish forebearers. The children were home-schooled by their mother, who had a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University, at their home in Nyack, New York and at their apartment in Manhattan, where they lived during the winter of 1935. According to the diaries in this collection, the children and Edith took classes and regularly attended lectures at the New School. Later, all of the children studied at either Barnard College or Columbia University, or both, and most went on to lead distinguished academic and professional careers.

Ingrith Deyrup studied zoology at Barnard College, earning her doctorate in physiology from Columbia University. She became a full professor of zoology at Barnard in 1959, and in 1964 accepted a professorship at the University of Washington. While focused on banana slugs and the chemical structure of the mucus they produce for locomotion, Deyrup's research also contributed to the scientific understanding of cystic fibriosis in the human lung. At the University of Washington, Deyrup created an MA program for teaching biology and, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, she worked to improve the teaching of biology in secondary schools nationally. She also launched a women's studies program at UW. Among the many awards Deyrup earned were Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships and a Distingushed Teaching Award.

Deyrup married fisheries biologist Sigurd Olsen in 1964, changing her name to Ingrith Deyrup-Olsen. After Olsen's death in 1980, she founded a scholarship for undergraduate students honoring his name. Ingrith Deyrup retired from the University of Washington in 1990. She died of cancer in Seattle at the age of 85.