Fidelia Bridges was among the few women to achieve professional success as an artist in mid 19th century America. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1834, she trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under William Trost Richards, established a Philadelphia studio in 1862, exhibited at the National Academy of Design from 1863, and in 1873 became one of only two women elected as an associate member of the Academy, followed by membership in the American Watercolor Society the following year.

Bridges is best known for meticulously rendered watercolors and paintings of flora and fauna, described by Katherine Manthorne as “living still lifes,” drawn from sustained outdoor study, particularly in the Connecticut countryside. Her work is represented in major public collections including the Brooklyn Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the latter holding examples gifted by Max N. Berry.