Operation to remove hernia from a female patient, showing the incision (above the pubis) with the displaced bladder protruding and the hernia sac attached to connective tissue and occupying the wall of the cavity in the thigh artery. Pencil drawing by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1947.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1947.

1 pencil drawing : watercolour wash, with gouache and black ink ; sheet 8.9 x 9.1 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.

Rectus abdomino, bladder, a Lettering inscribed in black ink as key, typed accompanying note describes the operation in four steps as A. K. Henry's suprapubic extra-peritoneal operation and gives detailed information on the ligaments represented Bears number: 76/1947

Closed until 01/01/2033

Wellcome Collection 32138i

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.

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.