A printmaker and watercolour painter, Whitehead studied at Bury School of Art 1912-14, Manchester School of Art, 1914-17 and the Slade 1917-18. She began exhibiting in 1920, showing at the New English Art Club, the Scottish Royal Academy and with the R.E. and was elected A.R.E. In 1921.
The same year she was awarded the Prix de Rome in Engraving, the first woman to hold the award.
The British School at Rome (BSR) archives describe her three years tenure and many copies of her prints, photographs and correspondence are held in the BSR archives. During the first two years of the scholarship, Whitehead did preparatory drawings and designs for engraving plates, travelling across central and northern Italy, creating sketches in Orvieto, Subiaco, Perugia, Siena. With preparatory sketches, studies and designs completed, Whitehead finalised compositions for the etching plates and drypoints during her third and final year.
Whitehead's etchings and drawings often capture scenes from quotidian life in Italy, revealing connections she established with Italian people outside of the School. She also produced images of Italian architecture.
This original etching is signed in pencil on thin laid paper, the paper skinned in the top margin at the two corners. Whitehead gave an impression of Sewing as her Diploma print on election as an ARE.