Bowdler Sharpe sisters

Between 1885 and 1910 at least seven of the ten daughters of Richard Bowdler Sharpe worked as colourists, painting lithographs drawn by Claude Wyatt, J.G.

They are credited, sometimes by name and sometimes as a group, as colourists in at least five ornithological books by Sharpe, Wyatt, Joseph Whitaker, Walter Buller, and Frederick DuCane Godman.

The sisters were the daughters of naturalist Richard Bowdler Sharpe and his wife Emily Eliza, née Burrows.

[1] From a very young age, the sisters began painting lithographs for their father’s projects, and also sold their services to other scientists.

[2] In 1911 the three eldest sisters and their mother received a pension in recognition of their father’s work and their 'straitened circumstances' after Richard’s death in 1909.