Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, several family members (by birth and marriage) were active in the art world. They were related through John Spencer Stanhope (1787–1873), a classical antiquarian, writer, and explorer, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Coke of Norfolk, 1st Earl of Leicester. John Spencer Stanhope was the son of industrialist Walter Spencer-Stanhope (1749–1822). The couple died in 1873 within a few days of each other; she on 31 October, he on 7 November. They had six children:
Sir Walter Spencer-Stanhope (1827–1911), Conservative politician. He married Elizabeth Buxton and had 11 children including:
Anna Maria Diana Wilhelmina, author of several books writing as A. M. W. Stirling under her married surname, and founder of the De Morgan Centre for the Study of 19th Century Art and Society.