Half-length portrait of Eleanor Ormerod, in cap, black gown and LL.D. hood. She sits slightly sideways, her left elbow and right hand resting on a table before her, her left hand lightly supports her cheek. Behind the arm on the table there is a pile of books.

Dr Ormerod was an was a leading entomologist, author and lecturer. She was the first woman to be admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and the first to be given an honorary doctorate by the University of Edinburgh.

The photography studio of Elliott & Fry also produced portraits in oils and chalk. Dr Ormerod commissioned this oil portrait from them as a gift for the university, in remembrance of its decision to award her the doctorate.