Scientific Illustration

essentialsublimeabsurd:

“‘Blind Granny’, c17-18th century. Image © Royal College of Physicians

Title on print: Blind Granny Stipple by unknown artist, date unknown Size: 21.3 cm x 13.1 cm

Blind Granny was an elderly lady who lived in London around the turn of the 18th century. She was called ‘Blind Granny’ or even ‘Lady Granny’, but her real name is unknown. She was famous for the length of her tongue (the medical term today is macroglossia), with which she would lick her blind eye in return for money to buy beer. She was also thought to have mental health issues. Despite the proximity of Bethlem Hospital (known as ‘Bedlam’), an institution for people who were commonly referred to as ‘lunatics’ from 1377, she was accepted by the local population as an eccentric living within their midst. She was considered a ‘character’ in her London locality and was celebrated in verses of the time.

**Liz Porter, focus group participant:** ‘I don’t like the fact that she hasn’t got a name … her impairment is her title. With the others they are given a name.’

**Tim Gebbels, focus group participant:** ‘ … it touches off that whole debate about how individuals regard impairments today in society and how collectively we talk about impairments via the media. There is generally a perception, not articulated as crudely as this, that anyone with mental health issues is a potential rampager … and a danger to others, whereas with the vast majority of people with mental health issues that isn’t the case. And there’s also the image that people with mental health issues are … fairly low functioning often, which is given to us … by a tabloid media, which is not true …’ **Jane Stemp, focus group participant:** ‘ … she is portrayed with a jug of beer, she has got what she wants. So there’s some kind of, you know, there’s some kind of success for her in that.’

**Aidan Moesby, focus group participant:** ‘But in that image she doesn’t look like she’s pleased that she’s got the beer. She doesn’t look like she’s kind of enjoying or engaging with it … ’

**Jane Stemp, focus group participant:** ‘So is it ironic that her image has more power than she does? … her image is doing the rounds and getting seen and letting us know about her.’”

essentialsublimeabsurd:

“Matthew Buchinger (b1674). Image © Royal College of Physicians

Title on print: Matthew Buckinger Etching by R Grave, date unknown Size: 22.9 cm x 15.9 cm

Matthew Buchinger was born in 1674 in Anspach, Germany. He was the youngest of nine children. He migrated to England in the early 18th century and exhibited in London. Like many of the disabled people portrayed in this exhibition, he traveled more widely than the majority of the world’s population did at that time. Buchinger was married four times (some of these relationships were reputed to have been stormy) and had 11 children. He was a celebrated artist and examples of his fine penmanship are in the Harleian Collection of manuscripts at the British Library, London. An elegy from a Dublin writer reveals the affection in which Buchinger was held during his lifetime: ‘Poor Buchinger is dead and gone, A lifeless trunk who was a living one; Trunk did I say, wherein all Virtues met? I shou’d ha’ call’d him a rich cabinet.’

**Phil Willan, focus group participant:** ‘ … at a glance at his picture … he’s not very upfront about showing off his disability … until you realise he doesn’t actually have any hands and he’s sort of neatly in a position where he could arguably just be kneeling down … In terms of a comparison nowadays … I think people are far more willing to reveal that, for example, they only have half an arm … Whereas probably there was a time in the not too distant past where that wouldn’t have been the case … it wouldn’t have been considered socially appropriate to do that.’

**Mik Scarlet, focus group participant:** ‘What strikes me about Matthew is that he’s sitting on a plinth and it brings to mind the [sculpture of] Alison Lapper … the pregnant … girl [born without arms and with shortened legs] … I think that that was a very powerful statement to say, “Look I can have a baby, I can have a sexual relationship …I’m normal.” … the other night there was a television programme … a question and answers programme about disability and sex basically. I mean, you know, can disabled people have a normal … sexual relationship? … Alison represents that side of disability, which is often a bit of a taboo subject. I think the thing is we are almost asexual. I’ve been making TV documentaries about sex since 1987 and … the one that went out last week had exactly the same topics in it. So that’s 30 years of people going, “What? You can have sex?”’”