Congenital heart disease in a seventeen day old baby: four diagrammatic sections showing hydronephrosis, congenital morbus cordis and tricuspid atresia. Pen and ink drawing by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1949.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1949.

1 drawing : black ink, with pencil ; sheet 24.4 x 18.9 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.

<...> aged 17 days, congenital morbus cordis, with obstruction of r<ight> ureter, hydronephrosis and renal atrophy of r<ight> common cartoid art<ery>, l<eft> common cartoid art<ery>, l<eft> subclavian art<ery>, innominate ar<tery>, r<ight> aorta, left atrium, r<ight> atrium, r<ight> pulonary art<ery>, inf<erior> vena cava, patent interventricular septum, patent foramen ovale, aortic cusp of mitral valve, main pulmonary trunk, r<ight> auricle, r<ight> ventricle, left ventricle, l<eft> auricle, descending aorta Lettering inscribed in black ink as key, typed label on reverse gives name of C F Ross, figure 1 drawing of heart before opening, figure 2 drawing of heart after opening. This may refer to a published article which the drawings were intended to illustrate Bears number: 163/1949

Closed until 01/01/2050

Wellcome Collection 33254i

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.