Ella Augusta "Eleanor" Norcross (June 24, 1854 – October 19, 1923) was an American painter who studied under William Merritt Chase and Alfred Stevens.

She lived the majority of her adult life in Paris, France, as an artist and collector and spent the summers in her hometown of Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

The nature of her essays provide insight into the woman she would become: one who would successfully operate in a male-oriented society, had an interest in bettering the plight of others, and appreciated historical things.

[7] Frances Vose Emerson was a classmate at Wheaton, good friend from childhood, and ultimately a trustee for the Fitchburg Art Museum.

[14] Her painting, Woman in a Garden, reflects influences of Chase, Monet and French Impressionism combined with the skill to draw with a paintbrush learned from Alfred Stevens.

[15] My Studio (1891)—which depicts her father in a room with "elaborately patterned textiles", antique and oriental furnishings, and flowers—is "the most impressive" of her works at the Fitchburg Art Museum.

The vacant chair, the mirror reflecting spaces not directly perceivable, and the abundance of rectangular units that impose a geographic organization on the wall—all these features occur also in Chase's paintings, as well as in those of Degas and Cassatt who were, along with Monet, Renoir and Rodin, among her personal acquaintances.

[14] Norcross's interiors provided insight into European decorative arts: Her gift was for mellow, loving, quiet observation of cozy spaces that close out the rest of the world.

Her surfaces are loose and brushy, clearly influenced by Impressionism.The 1914 Musée des Arts Décoratifs (in the Louvre) was to have exhibited her works, but the show was cancelled due to the commencement of World War I.

[14] Works from her collection were given to Wheaton College in 1922 during her 50th-year reunion, including an oil sketch by Alix d'Anethan and a seascape by Alfred Stevens.

[14] She loaned her paintings to the Worcester Art Museum,[19] and the Fitchburg Public Library was a beneficiary of photographs, prints, engravings,[20] textiles, dishes, and furniture.

[21] To implement her plan to establish a cultural center in Fitchburg,[2] Norcross shipped works of art from her collection to her hometown and left $10,000[6][13] or $100,000 in her will,[2][5] with the provision that the town raise an equal amount to provide a healthy endowment, otherwise the monies would go to Wheaton Seminary.

[6] [Norcross] was an artist, collector, and philanthropist who sought to inspire, educate, and improve society through cultural enrichment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

[12]Friends Frances Vose Emerson[nb 2] and Providence art teacher Sophia Lord Pitman were identified in the will as trustees for the museum.

[2][8] An old brick stable was purchased in 1924[6] and was remodeled by Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc., a Boston firm of women architects,[8][12] into a French Provincial building.