Helen Allingham (nee Paterson) was born near Burton on Trent, the family settling in Birmingham after the death of her father in 1862. She studied at the Birmingham School of Design under Rainbach, and in 1867 went to London to study first at the Female School of Art, and then at the RA Schools. In London she stayed with her aunt, Laura Herford, who had been instrumental in opening the Royal Academy Schools to women. Allingham's began her career as a black and white illustrator, her first success being in Once a Week, followed by various children's books for Cassells. By the late 1860's she had a strong reputation, she was one of the founder members of staff on The Graphic when that magazine was established in 1869. From 1874 she was a regular contributor to the Illustrated London News and the Cornhill Magazine - including Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. In that year she married the poet William Allingham, (whose book The Music Masters was one of those illustrated by the Pre-Raphaelites). Following her marriage, freed from the necessity of earning a living, she turned more to. Allingham was influenced by the works of Fred Walker. Of her watercolors, Ralph Peacock wrote that few painters "have shown a more definitely English sympathy in landscape than she has." She produced rustic countryside scenes, with cottages and village people, in a sympathetic style avoiding overt sentimentality. She was also a portraitist, among her sitters being Carlyle. Watercolors by Allingham are in the Birmingham museum. Many of the periodicals illustrated by her are still to be found in second-hand bookshops.