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LHSA participates in ‘Drawing for Instruction: The art of explanation’

25 January 2010

LHSA has contributed to an exhibition titled ‘Drawing for Instruction: The art of explanation’ at the Talbot Rice Gallery which opens on 2 February.

LHSA has taken this opportunity to display a selection of important collection items:

- watercolours of patients by John Myles, c.1882, commissioned by Royal Edinburgh Hospital Physician Superintendent, Thomas Clouston

- drawings by Andrew Kennedy and William Bartholemew, both patients at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in the nineteenth century

- clinical drawings used by Professor Sir Norman Dott (1897-1973), neurosurgeon

- architectural plans for the Surgical Hospital of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 1872-1875.

In their original context, the exhibited items show how drawing was a teaching resource in both clinical psychiatry and hospital construction. In this exhibition they are displayed in a new context, where they continue to teach us about the patient and healthcare practitioner experience of the past.

The exhibition runs until 6 March 2010 at the Talbot Rice Gallery, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh. Admission is free and the Gallery is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm. See the Talbot Rice Gallery website for more details:

Talbot Rice Gallery

Below are two of the items on display. On the left is John Myles' portrait of patient Richard Hailing, 1882 and on the right a clinical drawing used in teaching by Professor Norman Dott, c.1955

Portrait of patient Richard Hailing by John Myles, 1882

Clinical drawing used in teaching by Professor Norman Dott, c.1955

More information on Andrew Kennedy is available on our spotlight pages:

Andrew Kennedy drawings