Eliza Eve Gleadall

Eliza Eve Gleadall (1806–1887) was an English botanical illustrator and headmistress. She was the author of Beauties of Flora, a collection of lithographs of rare plants.

Life Gleadall was born in 1806 in Lincolnshire. By 1831, she was teaching at Heath Old Hall ladies’ seminary in Wakefield, where she became headmistress. The school taught subjects including grammar, history, languages, music, drawing, dancing, geography and astronomy.

Illustration In 1834–7, she published a book of floral illustrations, Beauties of Flora, by subscription. The book recorded the exotic plants being grown in the hothouses of local aristocrats in folio-sized lithographs. She was mentored by botanist Samuel Curtis so as to make botanically accurate drawings, which were accompanied by botanical and poetic reflections, notes on the religious symbolism of the plants, and instructions for how to colour them.