15 Facts About Elizabeth Twining

Elizabeth Twining was an English painter, author, and botanical illustrator.

Elizabeth Twining is best known for her detailed botanical illustrations, especially the two-volume Illustrations of the Natural Order of Plants, which was published between 1849 and 1855.

Elizabeth Twining was an heiress of the Twinings family of tea merchants and was a philanthropist.

Elizabeth Twining was born in 1805 into the Twinings tea-merchant family.

Elizabeth Twining was one of the nine children of Elizabeth Mary and Richard Twining.

Elizabeth Twining was raised in London, where she learned art and drawing as part of her education, during which she was inspired by Curtis's The Botanical Magazine and the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick.

Elizabeth Twining began to draw plants and flowers, and practiced by making sketches from works in the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Elizabeth Twining was able to visit famous museums with her father's patronage.

Elizabeth Twining wrote and illustrated a number of books on the subject of botany, most notably the two-volume Illustrations of the Natural Order of Plants, which included 160 hand-coloured lithographs in royal-folio size, which were reportedly based on observations made at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, and at Lexden Park in Colchester.

Elizabeth Twining organised the illustrations of plant orders based on the de Candolle system, that was a new innovation at the time.

Elizabeth Twining resided at the old family residence of Dial House, in Twickenham.

Elizabeth Twining died in 1889, and, in her will, Dial House was given to the people of Twickenham for use as the vicarage.

Elizabeth Twining established and managed a temperance hall in Portugal Street in Holborn, London; renovated the parish almshouses near her home at Twickenham ; and, after a long association with King's College Hospital, established the St John's Hospital for the treatment of the poor.

Elizabeth Twining was the founder of "mothers' meetings" in London, for which she wrote Ten Years in a Ragged School and Readings for Mothers' Meetings.

Elizabeth Twining contributed to the founding of the Bedford College for Women by Elizabeth Jesser Reid.