Ella Howard Estill Explained

Ella Howard Estill
Other Names:Mrs. John Wilmot Estill
Birth Name:Ella Robinson Howard
Birth Date:1860
Birth Place:Columbus, Ohio
Death Date:1941
Death Place:Los Angeles, California
Nationality:American
Known For:watercolor paintings
Spouse:John Wilmot Estill
Children:3

Ella Howard Estill (1860-1941) was an American painter.

Biography

Ella Howard Estill was born Ella Robinson Howard in 1860 in Columbus, Ohio. She married window manufacturer John Wilmot Estill in October 1887, and they had three children: Howard Wilmot, Mary Howard, and Edward Howard. After the birth of Edward, Ella became ill with tuberculosis and moved to Oracle, Arizona for her health. She began painting wildflowers and cacti in the desert. The rest of the family joined her a year later, and John opened a general store.[1] [2] In 1906, the family moved to Tucson. In 1921, Ella and John Estill moved to Los Angeles, where Ella died in 1941.

Her daughter, Mary Howard Cadwell, was one of the first women in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in microbiology, and later became a professor at the University of Arizona.

Painting

Some of Estill's watercolor paintings of cacti were included in the book The Fantastic Clan, The Cactus Family by John James Thornber and Frances Bonker. The University of Arizona Herbarium contains almost 600 of Estill's watercolors in its collection.[3]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: March 2001. Caldwell, Mary Estill, 1896-1995 Personal Papers, 1896-1973. live. ArizonaHistoricalSociety.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20210806232904/https://arizonahistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/library_Caldwell-MaryE.pdf . 2021-08-06 .
  2. Ellis. Catherine H.. 2012. "FONG IS IN CHARGE OF THE KITCHEN": Pioneer Cooks and the Culinary Life of Oracle, Arizona. The Journal of Arizona History. 53. 1. 71. 41697405 . JSTOR.
  3. News: April 2019. Another dive into the illustration collection at the University of Arizona Herbarium. Desert Breeze: Newsletter of the Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society.