Elizabeth Goodridge

Who was Elizabeth Goodridge?

Elizabeth Goodridge was an American painter who specialized in miniatures. She was the younger sister of Sarah Goodridge, also an American miniaturist.

Goodridge was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, the seventh child and fourth daughter of Ebenezer Goodridge and his wife Beulah Childs. Eliza's earliest miniatures date from the late 1820s and are similar in style to her sister's work, although not as technically advanced. At an early age, she began drawing and showed an aptitude for art. Women's educational opportunities were limited at the time and where Goodridge lived, so she was essentially a self-taught artist.

Goodridge probably began her career in Boston working with her sister, but spent most of her life in the central part of Massachusetts. She lived in Templeton, Massachusetts, and made several extended trips to Worcester in the 1830s and 1840s, during which time she lived with and painted members of the Foster Family.

In 1849, at the age of fifty-one, Goodridge married Colonel Ephriam Stone, who owned a general store and sawmill in Templeton.