Ella Howard Estill | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ella Robinson Howard 1860 |
| Died | 1941 |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Mrs. John Wilmot Estill |
| Known for | watercolor paintings |
| Spouse | John Wilmot Estill |
| Children | 3 |
Ella Howard Estill (1860-1941) was an American painter.
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]
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]
The Sonoran Desert is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States. It is the hottest desert in both Mexico and the United States. It has an area of 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 sq mi).
Stenocereus is a genus of columnar or tree-like cacti from the Baja California Peninsula and other parts of Mexico, Arizona in the United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Venezuela and the West Indies. The genus has been enlarged by the addition of species from several other genera. A close relative is the peculiar chinoa or chende cactus, Polaskia chende.
Desert Botanical Garden is a 140-acre (57 ha) botanical garden located in Papago Park, at 1201 N. Galvin Parkway in Phoenix, central Arizona.
Lela Margaret Cole Kitson was a freelance writer of primarily western romances from 1920 to 1955.
The white-throated woodrat is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is found from central Mexico north to Utah and Colorado in the United States. It is primarily a western species in the United States, extending from central Texas west to southeastern California. Populations east of the Rio Grande in New Mexico and Trans-Pecos Texas, previously considered to be variants of the white-throated woodrat, have since 1988 been assigned to the white-toothed woodrat.
Stenocereus alamosensis is a species of cactus native to Mexico. It is viviparous, apparently an adaptation to living in coastal plains which are prone to flooding. The Seri people of Sonora call this cactus xasaacoj. The specific epithet, alamosensis, refers to the plant's occurrence at Álamos in the Mexican state of Sonora, in northwestern Mexico.
The cactus wren is a species of wren that is endemic to the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern and central Mexico. It is the state bird of Arizona, and the largest wren in the United States. Its plumage is brown, with black and white spots as markings. It has a distinctive white eyebrow that sweeps to the nape of the neck. The chest is white, whereas the underparts are cinnamon-buff colored. Both sexes appear similar. The tail, as well as flight feathers, are barred in black and white. Their song is a loud raspy chirrup; akin in the description of some ornithologists to the sound of a car engine that will not start. It is well-adapted to its native desert environment, and the birds can meet their water needs from their diet which consists chiefly of insects, but also of some plant matter. The cactus wren is a poor flier and generally forages for food on the ground. Ornithologists generally recognize seven subspecies, with the exact taxonomy under dispute.
The saguaro is a tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea that can grow to be over 12 meters tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California. The saguaro blossom is the state wildflower of Arizona. Its scientific name is given in honor of Andrew Carnegie. In 1994, Saguaro National Park, near Tucson, Arizona, was designated to help protect this species and its habitat.
Annie Graham Rockfellow was an influential and prolific architect active in Tucson, Arizona during the first half of the 20th century.
David Albert Yetman is an American academic expert on Sonora, Mexico, and an Emmy Award-winning media presenter on the world's deserts. He is a research social scientist at the University of Arizona.
Rose Eudora Collom was an American botanist and plant collector. She was the first paid botanist of the Grand Canyon National Park. She discovered several plant species, some of which were named in her honor, and collected numerous plant specimens.
The Cactaceae is a monograph on plants of the cactus family written by the American botanists Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose and published in multiple volumes between 1919 and 1923. It was landmark study that extensively reorganized cactus taxonomy and is still considered a cornerstone of the field. It was illustrated with drawings and color plates principally by the British botanical artist Mary Emily Eaton as well as with black-and-white photographs.
David Griffiths (1867–1935) was an early 20th century American agronomist and botanist who was a specialist on fungi and on seed-producing plants, especially cacti.
Effie Almira Southworth Spalding (1860–1947), was an American botanist and mycologist, and the first woman plant pathologist hired by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Her most important discovery was the 1887 identification of the fungus Colletotrichum gossypii as the cause of cotton cankers, a disease which killed thousands of acres of cotton and was a major economic threat. She taught botany at several institutions, worked at the Desert Botanical Laboratory with her husband, and established the Botany Department Herbarium at the University of Southern California.
Lucretia Breazeale Hamilton (1908–1986) was an American botanical illustrator, who was considered an expert on southwestern United States flora. She illustrated numerous technical papers for the University of Arizona and 16 books. She was posthumously recognized with a Desert Willow cultivar named in her honor and induction into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame.
Gerry Peirce (1900–1968) was an American artist who specialized as a watercolorist and printmaker. He is best known for his dry point plate etchings and ethereal watercolors of Arizona desert landscapes, cactus, mountains.
Madame Germaine Rouget Cheruy (1896–1980) was a French costume designer, artist and intellectual who moved to the United States in 1924. She launched and taught art programs in private schools in Connecticut including the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. In 1939 she moved to Tucson, Arizona, and in the early 1940s purchased a home with her husband Rene Cheury in the artist colony of old Fort Lowell. She lived happily with her husband in Arizona. She was recognized and best known for wash drawing, etching, woodblocks, painting, costume design, weaving, fiber arts and arts education.
Ysabel Galbán Wright was a Cuban-American botanist and plant collector who specialized in cacti.
Mary Lois Jotter Cutter (1914–2013) was an American botanist. She and Elzada Clover were the first women to raft the entire length of the Grand Canyon in 1938, making scientific collections of plants along the way.
Gertrude Divine Webster was an American philanthropist known for co-founding the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona, and establishing Yester House, her summer estate which is on the National Register of Historic Places and houses the Southern Vermont Arts Center. During her marriage to William McClellan Ritter she was known as Gertrude Divine Ritter. She subsequently married Hugh Webster, and was known as Gertrude Divine Webster until her death on March 31, 1947.