Elizabeth Gould, (née Coxen; 18 July 1804 – 15 August 1841), was a British artist and illustrator at the forefront of the natural history movement.

In Victorian England, botany and natural history were part of the education of girls in middle-class English families.

[2] As Ann Moyal stated, "Cultivated women drew, walked, observed, collected specimens, arranged and painted."

[5] All of the group were enthused with the depiction and scientific illustration of the unknown animals found on European expeditions, especially the novelties in English collections of Australian birds and mammals.

Their skills were complementary and the pair worked together to make significant advances in the world of natural history and ornithology.

[note 1][23] Elizabeth did not live to see the completion of her research, dying of puerperal fever shortly after the birth of her last child.

Now housed in the Mitchell Library, the letters reveal Elizabeth as a charming, cultured, talented woman, both a musically and artistically.

John Gould named the Gouldian Finch in memory of his wife, stating "It was with feelings of the purest affection that I ventured, in the folio edition, to dedicate this lovely bird to the memory of my late wife, who for many years laboriously assisted me with her pencil, accompanied me to Australia, and cheerfully interested herself in all my pursuits.

A copy of A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains, illustrated by Gould, and the property of Sir Stephen Glynne by original subscription, held ever since by the Gladstone family of Hawarden Castle, was offered for auction by Chrisities estimate £20,000-£30,000 in July 2023.

[19] Her role as sole artist of their first collection A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains was acknowledged on every lithograph, with the attribution "Drawn from Nature and on Stone by E.

Scholars feel that Elizabeth's exhaustive work creating an archive of preparatory drawings for the lithographs before her death was not adequately recognized.