Henshall spoke often at conferences and published papers in professional journals, and active on the national level in the American Library Association. She contributed a detailed chapter on the history of Yolo County schools for the county history published in 1913. She was a charter member and president of Yolo County's chapter of Native Daughters of the Golden West. In 1914 she served on a committee of Yolo women responsible for providing a restroom at the California Building of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.