- Elizabeth Twining
Elizabeth Twining (1805 - 1889) was an English
botanical illustrator .Biography and drawing
Elizabeth was born in 1805 into the
Twinings tea merchant family, one of the nine children ofRichard Twining and his wife Elizabeth Mary Smythies. Raised in a privileged area ofLondon , she learnedart anddrawing as part of her upper-class education. Inspired by Curtis'sThe Botanical Magazine and theRoyal Horticultural Society atChiswick gardens, Elizabeth began drawingplant s andflower s; she practised by making sketches from works in theDulwich Picture Gallery, and toured famous museums thanks to herfather 's patronage.She wrote and illustrated a number of books on the subject, most notably the two-volume "Illustrations of the Natural Order of Plants" (volume I in 1849, volume II in 1855), which included a total of 160 hand-coloured lithographs,
royal folio , reportedly based on observation at the Royal Botanical Gardens inKew and atLexden Park inColchester . Interestingly, the subsequent 1868quarto edition features cheaper colour-printed plates, demonstrating the transition from expensiv hand-colouring to a lower-quality, cheaper alternative.Elizabeth Twining lived in the old family residence of Dial House, in
Twickenham . She died in 1889, and by her will, Dial house was given to the people of Twickenham for use as the vicarage. Most of her original artwork is now part of the collection of theBritish Museum .Fact|date=February 2007Other activities
Apart from her artistic endeavours, Elizabeth Twining was a notable
philanthropist . She set up and managed atemperance hall in Portugal Street, renovated theparish almshouses near herTwickenham home (a fact commemorated by a plaque onSaint Mary's church, Twickenham ), and, after a long association withKing's College Hospital , she established the Saint John's hospital for the treatment of the poor. She was the first to organise "mothers meetings" inLondon , for which she wrote ""Ten Years in a Ragged School and Readings for Mothers Meetings", and contributed to the founding of Bedford College for Women byElizabeth Jesser Reid .ources
* [http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/SpecialCollections/womennature/sectionpages/biographies.html University of Wisconsin-Madison: Special Collections Biography Elizabeth Twining]
* [http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=142 The Twichenham Museum Elizabeth Twining]
* [http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/hort/women.htm The Art of Botanical Illustration Women Illustrators]
* [http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~wheldwes/bot.html Great Botanical Books, A bookseller's perspective by Tony Swann]
* [http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/library/speccoll/exhibitions/botex/popbot.html Popular Botany in the Nineteenth Century]
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