Ellen Thayer Fisher

Ellen "Nelly" Thayer Fisher (April 16, 1847 – October 15, 1911) was an American botanical illustrator. Fisher exhibited her paintings at the National Academy of Design and other exhibitions. She was an active contributor to the exhibitions of the American Watercolor Society, beginning in 1872. In addition to being shown in galleries and exhibitions, her paintings of flora and fauna were widely reproduced as chromolithographs by Boston publisher Louis Prang. Personal life Ellen Bowditch Thayer was born on April 16, 1847, to William Henry Thayer and Ellen Handerson Thayer of Boston, Massachusetts. Her father served as a surgeon with the New Hampshire Volunteers in the American Civil War. Her younger brother, Abbott Handerson Thayer became an artist and naturalist. After living in Boston, the family moved to Woodstock, Vermont, and in 1855 to Keene, New Hampshire. By 1867, they moved to Brooklyn, New York. Ellen was married on June 30, 1869, to Edward Thornton Fisher (December 16, 1836–) They lived in Brooklyn, New York, and Ellen may also have rented a studio in New York City. They had seven children, Faith (later Mrs. William Wallace Fenn), Henry, Edward, Richard, Margaret, Reginald, and Eleanor. Ellen Thayer Fisher died on October 15, 1911, in Lanesboro, Massachusetts.