When I am looking for artistic inspiration, one of the things I turn to frequently is antique medical illustration. While today’s medical aids are stark in their realism, the medical illustration of past centuries – even the photography of the 1800s and early 1900s – had a stylized and artistic approach, as if the aesthetic quality of the drawing was as important as the disease or deformity it was meant to portray for educational purposes. Today I’ve put together a collection of images that I find inspiring and beautiful to behold, ranging from the 1600s to the 1800s. All images are CC via Wellcome Images.

Pencil, white chalk and watercolour drawing illustrating severe pustule crustaceous lesions on the head of a man suffering from syphilis. The drawing at left shows a detail of the ulcerated lesion above his left eye.
Watercolour
1855 By: Christopher D’Alton

Separate portraits of an albino negress, the siamese twins Hélène and Judith, and a girl with a skin disease who is called Maria Herig. Engraving.
after: Jacques de Sève Published: –

Hélène and Judith, siamese twins known as The Hungarian Sisters. Line engraving by J. Chevillet after De Sève.
By: Jacques de Sèveafter: Juste Chevillet Published: –

Iòao Baptista dos Santos, a diphallic boy with supernumerary legs. Lithograph by W. Kohler.
after: W KohlerPublished: –

Thomas Inglefield, an artist born without limbs. Etching by S. Ireland, 1787, after F. Grose.
1787 By: Francis Groseafter: Samuel IrelandPublished: 28 May 1787

Thomas Inglefield, an artist born without limbs. Etching by T. Inglefield, 1787, after C.R. Ryley.
1787 By: Charles Reuben Ryleyafter: Thomas Inglefield and James Fittler and RobertsonPublished: Publish’d as the Act directs Decr. 1787

Thomas Inglefield, an artist born without limbs, aged twenty. Engraving, 1804.
1804 Published: 22 December 1804

Jeffery Dunstan, a deformed eccentric. Stipple engraving by R. Page, 1821.
1821 after: R. PagePublished: 31 March 1821

Sarah Biffin, a limbless painter. Engraving by R.W. Sievier, 1821, after Sarah Biffin.
1821 By: Sarah Biffinafter: Robert William SievierPublished: June 1821

Plate XLV female with Icthyosis unilateralus, chin to upper thigh including arms
1896 Atlas of the diseases of the skin /
H. Radcliffe Crocker
Published: 1896.

Watercolour and ink drawing of the front of a patient treated in the 1st Physician Ward, Medical College, Calcutta, India, illustrating ichthyosis hystrix of unusual extent. A large part of the skin of the trunk on the right side is occupied by a black warty growth. This extends upwards to the occipital region of the scalp. From the lateral aspect of the main mass three projections pass towards the front. Of these one occupies the right shoulder and upper part of the pectoral regions, a second the right axilla, and a third the right hypochondrium. Upon the skin of the right arm are two long linear growths of a similar character.
6 Apr 1906 By: Das, Behari Lal St Bartholomew’s Hospital Archives & Museum
Published: –

(Left) A monstorous figure, with a scaly leg, wings instead of arms, and a horn on his head.
(Right) Siamese twins. One of the twins is not fully developed and is fully supported by the other.
1585 By: Giovanni Battista CavalieriMonsters; biblical, historical, and moral subjects; landscapes; allegories. Album of engravings, ca. 1585-1612
Published: 1585.

The title page of Cavalieri’s work, along with a picture of male Siamese twins.
1585 By: Giovanni Battista CavalieriMonsters; biblical, historical, and moral subjects; landscapes; allegories. Album of engravings, ca. 1585-1612
Published: 1585.

2 Illustrations to denounce the crimes of the corset and how it cripples and restricts the bodily organs in women.
Engraving
1908 Published: –
Printed: 10th October 1908

Two human figures with abnormalities
Engraving
1665 De monstris. Ex recensione Gerardi Blasii… qui monstra quaedam nova & rariora ex recentiorum scriptis addidit
Fortunio Liceti Gerardus Blasius
Published: 1665

Two human figures with abnormalities
Engraving
1665 De monstris. Ex recensione Gerardi Blasii… qui monstra quaedam nova & rariora ex recentiorum scriptis addidit
Fortunio Liceti Gerardus Blasius
Published: 1665

Two human figures with abnormalities
Engraving
1665 De monstris. Ex recensione Gerardi Blasii… qui monstra quaedam nova & rariora ex recentiorum scriptis addidit
Fortunio Liceti Gerardus Blasius
Published: 1665

Two human figures with abnormalities
Engraving
1665 De monstris. Ex recensione Gerardi Blasii… qui monstra quaedam nova & rariora ex recentiorum scriptis addidit
Fortunio Liceti Gerardus Blasius
Published: 1665

Two human figures with abnormalities, one male and one female figure
Engraving
1665 De monstris. Ex recensione Gerardi Blasii… qui monstra quaedam nova & rariora ex recentiorum scriptis addidit
Fortunio Liceti Gerardus Blasius
Published: 1665

Giants and dwarfs of the same age.
Anomalies and curiosities of medicine :
George M. Gould
Published: 1901, c1896.

Frontispiece facing English
Memoirs of the celebrated dwarf, Joseph Boruwlaski, a Polish gentelman, containing a faithful and curious account of his birth, education, marriage, travels and voyages
Joseph Boruwlaski
Published: 1788

J.F. Meckel, Conjoined twins.
De duplicitate monstrosa commentarius
Johann Friedrich II Meckel
Published: 1815

Two conjoined twins, both born on 28 April 1703.
Engraving
1708 Description anatomique des parties de la femme, qui servent a la generation; avec un Traite des monstres
Jean Palfyn Fortunio Liceti
Published: 1708

Child with double head lying on his back.
An ccount of a child with a double Head
Everard Home
Published: 1790

John Baptist dos Santos and la dame a quatre jambes.
Human monstrosities
B.C. Hirst and G.A. Piersol
Published: 1893

Child with double head at age twenty months.
Account of child with a double head
Everard Home
Published: 1790
