The new game of Badminton in India.

Biography:

Mary Ellen Edwards ( 1838-1934) 

Edwards who often signed her works as MEE, was an English artist who contributed to many Victorian newspapers and journals, as well being a prolific illustrator of children’s books.

She came from an artistic family. Her uncle was E. Killingworth Johnson and her mother’s uncle was James Wright, both Members of the Society of Painters in Water Colours. She spent her early years with her family in Surbiton, the Isle of Man, South Kensington, and Chelsea, London. On 13 June 1866, Edwards married John Freer. Freer worked for the Peninsular and Oriental Company, a steam navigation service. Edwards and Freer had one son, John E. L. Freer, born in 1867. Edward’s first husband (Freer) died in 1869. At this time and over the following decade Mary Ellen was submitting her work to the annual Royal Academy shows.  In 1872 she married the artist John Charles Staples, with whom she worked on many projects until his death at the end of the century.[