survey her work and add in a few lines here and there. Since, at a very early age, she displayed a wonderful eye for color, her father sent her drawings to an exhibition when she was six or seven. Aged 18, she exhibited a painting at the Royal Academy under her maiden name Miss M. E. Joy in 1866, the same year her father died at age 54. Bought on the private view day, her picture illustrated one of Jean Ingelow's poems. She undertook portrait commissions as well. After her father's death, she completed several of his unfinished orders. Though she excelled in both drawing and painting, she also showed literary promise. Before she could write fluently and elegantly, she practiced copying print in booklets when she was between the ages of seven and ten. Marriage and family When she was seventeen or eighteen, she became a member of Reverend Hugh Reginald Haweis's congregation at St. James the Less, Westminster, always writing notes of his sermons with pen and paper as he spoke. On 30 November 1867, a year after her father's death, she married Haweis at St. Mary's Church, Kilburn. As newlyweds they resided at Welbeck St, at 16 St. Marylebone, London. They had four children together. Their first-born son, Reginald Joy, died in infancy in 1869, but three further children survived to adulthood: Lionel (b. 1870), Hugolin Olive (b.1873), and Stephen Hugh Wyllyams (b. 1878), who also became a painter. In the 1880 England Census, the family is recorded as living at 34 St Johns Wood Rd, St. Marylebone with a nurse, cook, and footman. As Reverend Hugh Reginald Haweis was a popular preacher, Mary Eliza Haweis accompanied her husband on preaching tours of the continent and North America. Soon her travels abroad became an annual occurrence, enabling her to visit many great art galleries in European countries such as France, Germany, and Italy. In 1885, she and her husband traveled to America, where Reverend H.R. Haweis was a lecturer at Boston and a University preacher at Harvard. Ultimately, their goal was to become acquainted with the American citizens during their stay in the United States. Mrs. Haweis' visit to the Chicago exhibition in 1893 made a lasting impression on the city, made evident by her portrait being featured afterward in the Chicago Herald. Career and literary works After her marriage, Haweis continued to paint; however, she experienced