Mitral stenosis and aortic regurgitation in a 42-year old man with congested lungs: sections of mitral valve from below and above, showing calcification of the medial cusp. Watercolour by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1953.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1953.

1 painting : watercolour, with gouache ; sheet 14.8 x 26.3 cm

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.

Mitral valve from below, from above, wall of l<eft> ventricle, l<eft> atrium from above Lettering inscribed in black ink as key, typed accopmanying note with patient history includes post-operative infectious pneumothorax followed by fatal heart failure. At autopsy, it was discovered that division of the mitral, attempted at valvotomy was unsuccessful, since the calcified chordae tendinae were not materially altered. This created the fish mouth effect shown in the right image. This mass of calcerous material around the septal chordae, in particular, had prevented adequate splitting of the commissure Bears number: 331/1953

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.

Wellcome Collection 34621i

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.