Eleanor Creathorne Clayton

Eleanor Creathorne Clayton was born in Dublin on 15 February 1834, the daughter of wood engraver Benjamin Clayton III. She left Ireland for London at age seven, yet the Clapham and Fife roots of her mother’s family kept returning inside her work. Eleanor wrote and drew for young readers, gave kites the power to fly boys and taught trees to saw men. She also recorded women painters and singers others had forgotten, and in 1859 she asked the Royal Academy of Arts to admit women as students.