Born in Austria in 1918, Elizabeth spent the World War II years in Istanbul where her father was professor of medicine at Istanbul University. This resulted not only in her learning Turkish but also in developing an interest in Byzantine art and archaeology, leading to a dissertation on Byzantine ceramics. In 1945 she married Richard Ettinghausen, who had recently joined the Freer Gallery of Art and was also lecturing at Princeton University. That marked the beginning of Elizabeth's ties with the town where she lived for many years. In 1966 Richard became Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Islamic Art at the Institute of Fine Arts and in 1969 he was appointed Consultative Chairman of the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Meanwhile, in addition to pursuing her art–historical interests, Elizabeth was bringing up their two sons in Princeton. Today, the elder son teaches and practices medicine in Rochester, NY, and the younger is in international finance in Abu Dhabi.