Beginning as an illustrator of antiquarian books and travel writing, she produced portraits for publications and is noted for her personal project of reproducing medieval rood screens.

Along with her sisters, Maria, Elizabeth, Mary Anne, Harriet, Hannah, and Eleanor, she received artistic training from engraver John Sell Cotman from 1812.

[2][3][4] Around 1810, Dawson Turner began a project supplying extra illustrations for Francis Blomefield’s An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk.

[7] On 27 April 1830, Harriet married John Gunn, rector of Irstead, Great Yarmouth, and amateur geologist and archaeologist.

She exhibited her drawings at the annual congress of the Royal Archaeological Institute in 1847 and at a temporary museum at the Swan Hotel, Norwich.