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Ella Howard Estill

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Ella Howard Estill
Born
Ella Robinson Howard

1860
Died1941
NationalityAmerican
Other namesMrs. John Wilmot Estill
Known forwatercolor paintings
SpouseJohn Wilmot Estill
Children3

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

Biography

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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.[1]

Painting

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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]

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Caldwell, Mary Estill, 1896-1995 Personal Papers, 1896-1973" (PDF). ArizonaHistoricalSociety.org. March 2001. Archived (PDF) from the original on 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. JSTOR 41697405 – via JSTOR.
  3. ^ "Another dive into the illustration collection at the University of Arizona Herbarium" (PDF). Desert Breeze: Newsletter of the Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society. April 2019.
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