Elizabeth Eleanor Dancer was one of the daughters of the scientific instrument maker John Benjamin Dancer. In 1878, on her father's retirement due to ill health, Elizabeth took over the operation of the microphotography aspect of her father's business, along with one of her sisters, A M Dancer. The sisters traded under the names E & A Dancer & Co and E E Dancer & Co, and supplied microphotographs taken from their father's original negatives.

The sisters sold the business to Richard Suter in 1896.