Susanna Lister (1670-1738) & Anne Lister (1671-[1695-1704]), scientific Illustrators for their naturalist father Martin Lister (1639-1712)
Susanna and Anne Lister were the daughters of Dr Martin Lister (1639-1712), a physician and naturalist who was later appointed royal physician to Queen Anne.
In 1699 Martin Lister married Hannah Parkinson of Carleton Hall, Craven, Yorkshire. Their first child Susanna was likely born in 1670 and in the same year the family moved to York for Lister to establish his medical practice. Anne (known as 'Nancy' to her family) was born in October 1671. The birth of the sisters' siblings Michael, Frances, Dorothy, Alexander, Barbara and Jane followed.
Amongst Lister's scientific correspondents was Henry Oldenburg (c.1619-1677), the secretary of the Royal Society. Extracts from Lister’s letters on topics such as the sap in trees and the nature of insects were published in the Philosophical Transactions from 1671, and he was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society that same year. His first book 'Historia animalium Angliae tres tractatus' (1678–1681) was a three-part work on English spiders and terrestrial & marine molluscs.
The illustrations for the book were provided by professional male artist William Lodge (1649-1689) but Susanna and Anne were already displaying a talent for drawing and painting as children.
Earliest published engraving by Susanna of a silk tail bird which was included with her father's paper "A letter of Dr Lister's to Mr Ray, concerning some particulars that might be added to the Ornithology," 'Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society', vol 15 (1685), pp1159-1161. Source: Biodiversity Heritage Library.
De Cochleis (1685)
In 1685, when Susanna and Anne were around 15 and 13/14 respectively, their first illustrated work appeared. Both are credited on the title page of their father's new work which was an attempt to systematically depict every known shell. The first part, called 'De Cochleis' (1685) concentrated on land snails. Whilst Susanna and Anne drew the illustrations, William Lodge is thought to have undertaken the engraving for the early plates. However Lodge was apparently unreliable so Lister encouraged his daughters to also master engraving. This they must have achieved relatively quickly as in the same year that ‘De Cochleis’ was published an engraving by Susanna of a silk tail bird was published alongside Lister's paper "A letter of Dr Lister's to Mr Ray, concerning some particulars that might be added to the Ornithology" 'Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society', vol 15 (1685), pp1159-1161.
Right: Title page of 'Historia conchyliorum' which includes a credit for the illustrations by Susanna and Anne just below the date at the bottom. From: Martin Lister's 'Historiae sive synopsis methodicae Conchyliorum et tabularum anatomicarum', 2nd edn. Oxonii: E Typographeo Clarendoniano (1770). GSL Library collection.
Plate 787, engraving of Conus marmoreus by Susanna Lister. From: Martin Lister's 'Historiae sive synopsis methodicae Conchyliorum et tabularum anatomicarum', 2nd edn (1770). GSL Library collection.
Plate 711, engraving of Bulla gibbosa, Bulla ovum and Bulla secale by Susanna and Anne Lister. Susanna's drawings are on the right, whilst the smaller specimens are by Anne. From: Martin Lister's 'Historiae sive synopsis methodicae Conchyliorum et tabularum anatomicarum', 2nd edn (1770). GSL Library collection.
Lister’s shell book, now called ‘Historia conchyliorum’ was issued in parts until 1697 and comprised 1062 separate copper plate illustrations. In the first edition of the work, only one of the plates was signed by Susanna but in the Society’s copy of the 1770 edition this was removed. However it does allow you to work out the stylistic differences between the two sisters.
Susanna and Anne display two quite distinct methods in depicting form and shading. Susanna used cross-hatching whilst Anne favoured parallel lines of differing thicknesses which followed the form, with reflected light in the shadows. Occasionally these stylistic markers can be seen on the same plate which does appear to indicate collaboration or at least an indication of one sister finishing the work of the other.
Plate 373, engraving of the spiny fan mussel Pinna rudis by Anne Lister. The majority of the illustrated plates are relatively modest in size but there are a number of much larger engravings such as this one. From: Martin Lister's 'Historiae sive synopsis methodicae Conchyliorum et tabularum anatomicarum', 2nd edn, (1770). GSL Library collection.
Little is known about the two sisters’ lives after the publication of ‘Historia conchyliorum’. Their father did not produce any other descriptive works. Susanna married Gilbert Knowler (1663–1730) of Herne in 1706/7 and gave birth to a daughter also called Susanna (1708–1768). Susanna died at Bekesbourne on 8 March 1738 and was buried beside her husband. Nothing more is known about Anne other than she is thought to have died before 1704 as her name does not appear in her father’s will. A number of Susanna’s and Anne’s original artworks survive in the Bodleian Library.
Lister bequeathed the original plates to the Ashmolean Museum and its curator, William Huddesford, published an edited version of the book with additional information from Lister’s notes in 1770, which is the version held by the Geological Society. It was aptly dedicated to Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Portland (1714-1785), the notable shell collector.