Barbara Evelyn Nicholson was born in 1906 and trained at the Royal College of Art where she was awarded her degree in 1923. After setting out as a medical illustrator, her career took a turn when in 1958, Christina Foyle of Foyles Bookshop in London invited Barbara to exhibit some of her watercolours at her gallery in the Charing Cross Road. The tremendous success of this exhibition established Barbara as an accomplished botanical illustrator and led to a very productive relationship with the Oxford University Press. Over the next 15 years she painted over 500 illustrations for them including: The Oxford Book of Wild Flowers (1960), The Oxford Book of Garden Flowers (1963), The Oxford Book of Flowerless Plants (1966), The Oxford Book of Food Plants (1969) and The Oxford Book of Trees (1975). She received further commissions from the British Museum (Natural History), Liberty’s, the Curwen Press and others.