VOL. 6, NO. 2
DECEMBER, 1959
DURHAM, N. C.
The Medical
Illustrator—
At Your Service!
Today artists are found not oiily in
musty garrets, but also in the antisep
tic atmosphere of the modern hospi
tal. In the midst of rapidly expand
ing services hospitals offer their pa
tients today, the highly skilled artist
and photographer team together in
the field of medical illustration to
record, teach and help expand the
growing fund of medical knowledge.
The evolution of the modern pro
fession of medical illustrator is the
inevitable extension of the invaluable
assistance the artist has given the
doctor since medicine’s early begin
nings. No doubt you’ve seen ex
amples of early medical artists’ con
ceptions of medicine long ago in pic
tures around the hospital, fu the
last 25 years this field has mush
roomed from the pioneering stage to
its present status of one of the es
sential services to doctor, student and
patient in today’s best hospitals.
Medical Illustration
Comes to Duke
Elon II. Clark, i)rofessor of medical
illustration, came to Duke Hospital
in 1934 to head the Medical School’s
new Department of Medical Illustra
tion. At that time Mr. Clark and a
part-time photographer were able to
take care of the volume of medical art
work needed at Duke. Today Mr.
Clark’s department of four artists,
four ])hotographers and a secretary is
kept busy all the time trying to keep
up with the increasing use being made
of their services by the hospital and
medical school.
f>
Bob Blake, associate in medical illustration, and Elon Clark, professor of medical illustra
tion and head of Duke’s department, discuss a drawing.
SI’ECIAIj Seuvk'Hs
Just what does this department do?
'Fo fiiul this out for ourselves we spent
a few hours up on Ihe fourth fioor re
cently. And what a fascinating time
it was! Within seconds after we ar
rived in the bright studio and had
been introduced to Bob Blake, asso
ciate in medical illustration; artists
Jeanne Marie Justice and Donald
Powell; secretary Marie Price and
photographers Raymond Howard,
II. F. Pickett, Thurman Ellis and
James Wallace, a spunky little old
gentleman arrived on the scene to be
fitted for a plastic nose. Now this
nuiy sound like a strange function for
the medical illustration department—
making plastic noses, ears and such.
It is, but Mr. Clark exjilains it this
way. About 20 years ago work in
plastic prosthetics got under way here
and there across the country. Duke’s
Department of Medical Illustration
became interested in this field early
and lias become more j)roficient as
better ])lastics and better technicpies
have been developed. As this service
became more widely known and as
surgeons began to do more radical
procedures for removing cancers,
business in plastic prosthetics boomed.
This art has become an important
techni(iue in Duke’s training i>rogram
for the medical illustrator.
Incidentally, the success of the
training program in this department
is proven by the rather remarkable
fact that the head of every depart
ment of medical illustration in the