Stomach cancer in a 58-year old man with gastric ulcer: (a) view of stomach from resected upper end and (b) view of opened specimen, from incision along greater curvature. Watercolour by Barbara E. Nicholson, 1950.

Ashford, Middlesex, 1950.

1 painting : watercolour, with gouache ; sheet 28.3 x 25.7 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.

Lesser curvature, 1, view from resected upper end of stomach, greater curvature, ulcer with swollen inflamed edges, stomach opened along greater curvature Lettering inscribed in black ink as key, typed accompanying note with patient details states that the lower edges of the ulcer were opposed in life, forming a tunnel, giving a peculiar x-ray apperance with barium meal The radiograph prints were published with detailed case notes at a later date by J. A. Brocklebank, Ashford Hospital, in British journal of radiology, vol. 24, no. 283, 1951 Bears number: 207/1950

Wellcome Collection 33895i

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.