E.M. Hester is Edith Mary Hester, born in Hammersmith, London, England in 1869. She was the daughter of noted English draughtsman Edward Gilbert Hester. According to the 1901 England and Wales census, Edith Mary Hester was an "artist-engraver" living in Barnet, Hertfordshire, in 1901; later she was listed as a "mezzotint-engraver" living in Hornsey, Middlesex. Her brother, Charles, was also listed as an artist-engraver. She exhibited throughout England, including in the "Modern Mezzotints in Colour" exhibition at the Victoria Galleries in 1912.

Hester is mentioned in volume 90 of The Builder, an illustrated weekly magazine for architecture, engineering, and art, in which the Art Union of London refers to her services as a mezzotint artist to copy an artwork for distribution: "Unusal interest belonged to the [selected] plate for the coming year. The picture from which it was taken, "Day Dreams," by Mr. W.R. Symonds, was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1904, and had been purchased by the Council with a view to its adoption as the first prize in the next distribution. They were fortunate in securing the services of Miss E.M. Hester to engrave the plate. In deciding upon the issue of this plate, the Council were not altogether uninfluenced by the wish to mark the happy revival of the mezzotint engraving..." This mezzotint can be found in the British Museum, who lists her as a male printmaker, with no dates.