Edward Angelo was apprenticed to his father's office and his own artistic talents came to the fore in his teens when he won a silver medal, and praise from Clarkson Stanfield RA, at the Society of Arts for a picture of the landing of the Lord Mayor at Blackfriars Bridge.

Moritz Richard Schomburgk was commissioned by the Prussian government to map British Guiana's boundaries, accompanied by his brother Robert, who was to collect natural history specimens for the Royal Museum and the Botanical Gardens in Berlin.

Goodall was chosen in 1841 as a replacement artist, receiving a salary of 150 pounds per annum and payment of his passage to Guiana.

The botanical watercolours that Goodall had made were exhibited in Berlin, and the sketches of the indigenous tribes, in London and Paris.

In December 1854 Goodall was appointed war artist in the Crimea for the Illustrated London News.

Goodall died on 16 April 1908 and is buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery, London.