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Thelma Lehmann, nee Gerstman, was born in Georgia in 1916 and moved to Seattle with her family as a child. She studied art at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, the Art League in New York, and under Mark Tobey at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Her first one person exhibition was in 1939 at the Seattle Art Museum, and in 1951she won the SAM's prestigious Northwest Annual purchase prize. In the 1950s and 60s she was a permanent artist in the Zoe Dusanne Gallery and the Otoo Seligman gallery. She served on many juries and was a personal friend of many Northwest artists. She was an art critic for the Seattle times for one year and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for three years between 1957-1964.

In 1942, she married Seattle physician Hans Lehmann and they eventually adopted two sons, Spencer and Mark. From 1969-1982, Thelma directed a gallery of tribal African Art called Gallery Nimba. Her husband has started collecting African Art in 1963 when he served on the hospital ship Hope in Guinea, West Africa. The three pieces he brought home started Thelma's interest in the art. In 1965, they returned as a couple to West Africa on a collecting tour. The Lehmanns were active travellers, making prolonged sojourns to Afghanistan and Africa, among other destinations. In 1969, Thelma opened Gallery Nimba, showing art she had collected from Sierra Leone, Ghana, the Volta River region and Mali. She was active in promoting an interest in African art through articles, lectures, and tours of the gallery. One of the goals of the gallery was to acquaint black school children in Seattle with their cultural heritage. Docents were trained to work with groups of school children, and cultural tours and education were of greater concern than sales. Part of the Hans and Thelma Lehmann collection of African Art is on permanent display at Pacific Lutheran University. An exhibit of 100 pieces from their collection was on display in the Henry Gallery in 1982.

As a couple, Hans and Thelma Lehmann were very involved as patrons, board members, and fund raisers with the Seattle Symphony, the Youth Symphony, Seattle Opera Association, the Seattle Art Museum, the Henry Gallery, ACT Theater, and Repertory Theater. The Lehmanns frequently hosted meetings, parties, and receptions for art organizations in their home, which was also open as lodging to prominent performing artists with the Seattle Symphony. Hans died in 1996, and Thelma died in her Lake Union apartment in 2007 at the age of 91.

Source: http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/artist-thelma-lehmann-a-leader-of-cultural-scene/