Women’s Art Work:  Surgical Drawings by Dickie Orpen and Mollie Lentaigne

East Grinstead Museum is a local history museum in the heart of this historic town. It tells the story both of the development of the town, from the Middle Ages to the modern day, and of the remarkable story of SIr Archibald McIndoe a pioneering plastic surgeon and the air men who's lives he saved during the Second World War.It hosts a variety of engaging events from local history talks to children's activities, exhibitions and many other things besides.

East Grinstead Museum

This talk focuses on the work done by two surgical illustrators, Mollie Lentaigne and Diana ‘Dickie’ Orpen, during the Second World War.

This public lecture provides an art historian’s perspective on the documentary and artistic work done by women employed as surgical artists in plastic reconstruction wards during the Second World War. Mollie Lentaigne worked with the famed surgeon Archibald McIndoe at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead. Her contemporary, Diana ‘Dickie’ Orpen, carried out similar work in the reconstructive ward at Hill End Hospital in St Albans. The talk will expand on what is typically considered ‘women’s work’ on the home front during the Second World War, focusing on the artistic, physical, and intellectual labour that these women had to perform in their roles. But in addition to this wider context, this lecture will explore the personal stories of these two extraordinary women, including how they became surgical illustrators, what the job was like for them, and what they did after the war. Content warnings: The talk includes images of facial and bodily injury and surgery, and descriptions of sexual harassment.Christine Slobogin has recently completed her PhD thesis at Birkbeck, University of London. Her thesis research—which lies at the disciplinary intersection of art history and the medical humanities—focuses on Dickie Orpen’s Second World War surgical drawings. She is now a Wellcome Trust ISSF Researcher at Birkbeck, developing research on Second World War plastic surgery photography and British nationalism of the 1940s. Her broader research interests include feminist art history, trauma studies, archive theory, the history of emotions, and histories of humour. She is also the Newsletter Editor for the society Historians of British Art, and author of the blog Morbid Art History. Please note that ticket holders will be provided a link to Zoom 48 hours in advance of the event.

Women’s Art Work: Surgical Drawings by Dickie Orpen and Mollie Lentaigne

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Women’s Art Work: Surgical Drawings by Dickie Orpen and Mollie Lentaigne

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