Dissecting aneurysm of aorta in an 85-year old woman with dyspnoea: specimen section showing (a) rupture at level of diaphragm, (b) blood escaping into thorax, extensively under right diaphragm and surrounding right kidney with (c) a pencil sketch of a clot found in the thorax. Watercolour by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1957.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1957.

1 painting : watercolour, with gouache and pencil ; sheet 42.6 x 28.4 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.

R<ight> kidney surrounded by blood clot, clot from thorax, portion of diaphragm, site of rupture Lettering inscribed in pencil as key, typed accompanying note with patient history includes test results and investigations which found cyanosis, systolic and diastolic murmurs, distension of abdomen and signs of congestive heart failure Bears number: 508/1957

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 35931i

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.