Ecchymosis haematoma in a 62-year old man with painful cough: detail sketch to show bruising and large tender mass. Pen and ink drawing by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1950.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1950.

1 drawing : black ink, with watercolour wash ; sheet 27.9 x 20.7 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.

Side view of patient to show extent of ecchymosis Lettering in black ink, typed accompanying note with patient history explains that exploration of mass revealed extensive haematoma between transversus abdominus and internal oblique muscles, where half a pint of blood clot was removed, allowing recovery Bears number: 198/1950

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 33776i

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.