[1] Her parents were Bewicke Blackburn, a civil engineer who managed the slate quarries on Valentia, of County Kerry and Isabella Lamb of Co. Durham.

[3] In London, Blackburn came into contact with the women of the Langham Place Group, especially Jessie Boucherett and Emily Faithfull.

[7] In the early 1890s, she assisted Charlotte Carmichael Stopes in her writing of British Freewomen: Their Historical Privilege by supplying her own notes on the subject, then by purchasing the whole of the first edition in 1894.

The bookcases were decorated with paintings of Lydia Becker and Caroline Ashurst Biggs who had been the previous chairs of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage.

The book provided an account of the movement's formative years and her colleague Lydia Becker but makes few mentions of Blackburn's own contribution.

She and Vynne argued that women should be allowed to take risks with their health in the workplace or they may find themselves always in need to protection as if they were incapable.

[10] The book was noted for its accuracy, but the Economic Journal recognised its authors as Freedom of Labour Defence members and suspected that it may have political motives arguing for the "equality of men and women".

[11] Blackburn died aged 60 at her home in Greycoat Gardens, Westminster, London on 11 January 1903 and was buried at Brompton Cemetery.

[3] Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.