The seventh daughter of a prosperous Scottish family, Louisa MacDonald attended finishing school before studying classics at the University of London. She subsequently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (first-class honours) in 1884 and a Master of Arts in 1886. MacDonald was not only well educated but widely travelled; between 1887 and 1891 she visited the United States, Australia (New South Wales) and spent time travelling extensively throughout Europe. The first principal of the Women's College at the University of Sydney, MacDonald arrived in Sydney with the experience of having been a Fellow of University College and tutor of College Hall at the University of London. She also had a background of teaching and research at the British Museum.
Established in 1892, the Women's College was regarded as an 'experimental venture' and as such, the arrival of the new principal brought interested commentary in the local press. The Sunday Sun remarked with some sense of surprise: 'Miss MacDonald, despite her great attainments, has nothing of the bluestocking ... She wears gowns and hats of the period, with an appreciation of what custom demands in the attire of a gentlewoman'. Assuming her position at the college, and within colonial society, MacDonald was regarded as an individual of some importance with the status of being the 'highest salaried woman' in New South Wales.
In 1913, on the twenty-first anniversary of the Women's College, MacDonald commissioned the writing of a drama pageant that was to be performed as a 'fitting celebration' of a milestone which marked the institution's 'coming of age'. Conceptually 'designed' by MacDonald, A Mask represents her collaboration with the two university poets, Christopher Brennan and John Le Gay Brereton (qq.v.), who wrote the verses for the pageant of famous women under MacDonald's 'direction'.
In 1919, three decades after the college's inception, MacDonald resigned from the university. She returned to London leaving behind a 'flourishing institution'.
