Cardiac infarction with abnormal coronary in a 79-year old woman with dyspnoea. Pen and ink drawing by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1950.

Previous title, replaced June 2023 : Caridac infarction with abnormal coronary in a 79-year old woman with dyspnoea. Pen and ink drawing by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1950.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1950.

1 drawing : black ink ; sheet 23.1 x 33 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.

Occlusion in ant<erior>descending branch of coronary art<ery> Lettering inscribed in pencil as key, typed accompanying note with patient history includes swelling of legs, which developed into cellulitis and gangrenous bedsore of buttocks and sacral area. Post-mortem findings confirmed only one coronary artery with atheromatous occlusion, but full signs of congestive heart failure Bears number: 210/1950

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 33898i

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.