Joanna Eckstein widened the perspective of Seattle residents both with her travel writing and as a patron of the arts who supported individual artists and museums. Eckstein worked briefly as a social worker for the Social Welfare League after graduating Goucher College. In 1936, she took a four-month trip to China and Japan, beginning a love affair with travel that would eventually lead to a career as a travel writer for the Seattle Times. In that position, she travelled to every continent on the globe. Her comments on the joyous recovery of France, the reemergence of opera in Rome, and the devastation that remained in Munich put a human face on Europe’s attempts to recover from WWII. After her father’s death in 1945, Eckstein took his place on the board of the Seattle Art Museum, as well as the boards of Allied Arts and the Seattle Opera Association. She also served as president of the Seattle Children’s Home, the Seattle King Visiting Nurse Association, and a number of other civic organizations.