Malignant abscess in the stomach of a 68-year old man with cancer of the stomach, view from gastroscope. Watercolour by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1948.

Nicholson, Barbara

Date:: 1948

Reference:: 32672i

Part of:: Barbara Nicholson medical illustration collection.

Pictures

Collection contents

Barbara Nicholson medical illustration collection.
- Malignant abscess in the stomach of a 68-year old man with cancer of the stomach, view from gastroscope. Watercolour by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1948.32672i

About this work

Description

The use of the gastroscope and endoscope had greatly increased following the invention of flexible tubing and refined optical lense system by Rudolf Schinder and Georg Wolf, whereby an image could be transmitted while the tube was curved in 1932. Fibre optic transmission was then perfected in England, conceptually in relation to the gut and abdominal cancer. The spread of cancer to other areas and its varied manifestations were observed by surgeons such as Frederick Templeton and Alexander Brunschwig. By examining secondary tumours and deposits the transportation and invasion of cancer was further understood

Publication/Creation

Ashford, Middlesex, 1948.

Physical description

1 painting : watercolour, with gouache ; sheet 12.2 x 12.1 cm

Contributors

Biographical note

Barbara Evelyn Nicholson (1906 – 1978) trained at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1923. She began her artistic career as a medical illustrator and was a founder member of the Medical Artists Association, where she is recorded as serving on an exhibition committee in October 1949. By 1951, she had illustrated G.F. Gibberd, A short textbook of midwifery (2nd ed., London: J. & A. Churchill, 1941) and Philip Wiles, Essentials of orthopaedics (London: J. & A. Churchill, 1949). The Medical Artists Association records last list her, in 1951. In the 1950s her focus moved to botanical subjects and from the late 1950s – 1970s she was a prolific botanical illustrator.

Lettering

Accompanying typed note with patient history confirms, by gastroscopy, diagnosis of gastric carcinoma ventriculi with large secondaries near porta hepatis and coeliac axis Bears number: 115/1948

Creator/production credits

The watercolours and pen and ink drawings held by Wellcome Collection were painted by Barbara Nicholson at Ashford Hospital, Ashford, Middlesex, between 1946 and 1951, at the request of the surgeon Norman Matheson.

Reference

Wellcome Collection 32672i

Ownership note

Presented to the Wellcome Institute Library in 1987 by Ashford Postgraduate Medical Centre, as part of a collection of medical illustrations by Barbara E. Nicholson.