Alethea Howard, 14th Baroness Talbot, 17th Baroness Strange of Blackmere, 13th Baroness Furnivall, Countess of Arundel, née Lady Alethea Talbot, was a famous patron and art collector, and one of England's first published female scientists. She was the wife of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel with whom she built one of the most important art collections in 17th-century England. She was the youngest daughter of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife Mary Cavendish; and the sister of two other countesses: Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke and Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent.

Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel KG, was an English peer, diplomat and courtier during the reigns of King James I and King Charles I, but he made his name as a Grand Tourist and art collector rather than as a politician. When he died he possessed 700 paintings, along with large collections of sculptures, books, prints, drawings, and antique jewellery. Most of his collection of marble carvings, known as the Arundel marbles, was eventually left to the University of Oxford.