Harriet Miner was born in 1840 and attended Oberlin College in Ohio in 1860. She was an accomplished painter and teacher of painting and painted portraits and landscapes. Many of her paintings were placed in homes around Syracuse. Her specialty was painting flowers, especially orchids. She became a self-taught botanist and painted flowers in astonishing detail.
Harriet was ill the last four years of her life and died of pneumonia on February 23, 1895, at the age of 55.