Teaching watercolor showing the circular dilation of the internal abdominal ring and the changed position of the epigastric artery caused by an inguinal hernia

Teaching watercolor showing the circular dilation of the internal abdominal ring and the changed position of the epigastric artery caused by an inguinal hernia

Hernia, Inguinal

Inguinal Canal

Henry Jacob Bigelow Watercolor Collection

Wallis, Oscar

Bigelow, Henry Jacob, 1818-1890

Teaching Aids and devices

Teaching Methods

Harvard Medical School. Department of Anatomy

Fitz, Reginald, 1885-1953

After Thomas George Morton's The surgical anatomy of the principal regions of the human body, Inguinal Herniae, figures no. 4 and 5

Large watercolor in two parts showing the same area of the inguinal canal. The left view shows the dilation of the internal abdominal ring, the large black hole in the middle through which the string is threaded, caused by an inguinal hernia. The right shows the changed position of the epigastric artery, which runs further right and around before moving upwards compared to the normal positioning, as seen on the left. Watercolor is painted with muscles and arteries in red, veins in blue, and bone and other tissue in gray. Watercolor is framed in green sewn textile, with metal grommets in each of the four corners.

Wallis, Oscar

1848-1854

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Warren Anatomical Museum (21142.228)

Original source work can be found in the Countway Rare Books Collection (23.X.41)

image

watercolors (paintings)

21142.228

Henry Jacob Bigelow employed artist Oscar Wallis exclusively from 1848 - 1854 to paint a series of large teaching watercolors to illustrate Bigelow's lectures at Harvard Medical School. Wallis painted the teaching diagrams from local subjects and from the atlases of established medical authorities. The effort cost Bigelow $6,000. In 1890 Bigelow presented the watercolors to Reginald H. Fitz to be used in the Harvard Medical School's Department of Anatomy. The watercolors were transferred into the Warren Anatomical Museum between 1890 and 1930.

100 W x 69 H cm