Diseased intestine: surgical specimen showing (a) aorta section, posterior aspect, with thrombus and (b) blood filling descending colon, all coated with tumorous mesh. Watercolour by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1958.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1958.

1 painting : watercolour, with gouache ; sheet 32.1 x 22.4 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.

Posterior view, descending colon, abdominal aorta from back Note to printer's block maker asks for the image to be produced in black and white, hand written in pencil underneath. Lettering inscribed in black ink as key. Although no patient history is available, the image is suggestive of yellow carcinoma cancer tumours

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 36329i

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.