Susanna Lister

Susanna Lister or Susanna Knowler (c. 1670 – 8 March 1738) was a British natural history illustrator and engraver who with her sister, Anne Lister created over 1,000 shell illustrations. Life Lister was born in Carleton-in-Craven and baptised in 1670. She had a younger sister Anne Lister and six other siblings. Her parents were Helen and Martin Lister. She was born at Carleton Hall although her father had a residence in York. By the time she was eleven her polymath father was allowing her and her sister to experiment with oil paint but he prevented them from doing any serious limning until her had given them instruction. Her father had a large collection of seashells and they would learn how to draw these accurately. Martin Lister published a book of shell illustrations titled "De cochleis" and some of the illustrations are marked with "AL pni." and "SL" as attribution. Their drawings were etched in Oxford. They were some of the first women to use a microscope. Susanna and her sister's work was used by their father because he considered that the best engravers were not equally reliable. The illustrations were thought to be essential by her father as he wanted them to distract observers from his interest in molluscs. He was a physician and he worried that his interests may be seen as eccentric.