Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer, born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was an American illustrator, painter, and printmaker known for her portrayals of Tennessee society women and their children. Hergesheimer was the great-great granddaughter of the legendary Philadelphia artist Charles Willson Peale, and so comes from a long line of artists.
As a printmaker, she pioneered the “white-line woodcut”, of which Magnolia Seedpods is an excellent example.