Eliza Lee Lancaster was born on January 26, 1811. Her father had died and left her mother penniless. To support the family she began teaching and as a result learned how to draw and paint. Her teacher, Charles Robert Leslie, taught her how to mix colors and then she became a natural. In 1838, Eliza married the painter John Wesley Jarvis and together they had four children who all went on to become artists and writers as well. John and Eliza traveled and painted scenes around the world including Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, and America. They would sell their paintings through an art gallery in London. Lancaster books focus on women's culture of the past. They were published by Dorset Press from 1994-2004. Two collections of Lancaster's work are "The Woburn Women: Artists of the American Folk Movement" (1994) and "Images of Women: Images of Women in American Art" (2001). Lancaster also edited two volumes: "The Women Painters of America: A History of Women Artists in the United States 1820-1940" (1970) and "The Oxford History of Women in the World" (2000). In 2006 Eliza's great-great granddaughter sold her estate to a museum which is now called Lancaster House Museum as a living museum with over 200 pieces from the family's collection including paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, books, diaries, correspondence, personal items, furniture, and more.