The Thwaites sisters were part of the Thwaites brewery family of Blackburn, founded in 1807 by Daniel Thwaites. The sisters were evidently interested in natural history, and entomology in particular. The Thwaites artists were in good female company, working in the tradition of naturalist and scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717)—considered 'the mother of entomology' and the first to record the full life cycle of many species of butterflies and moths.
