Scientist of the Day - Mary Clymer
The “Woman in White,” Mary Clymer, graduate of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania School for Nursing, photograph, undated (nursing.upenn.edu)
Mary Clymer, an American operating-room nurse, died on Sep. 9, 1942 (some sources say Sep. 28), at age 81. Clymer was born on Jan. 8, 1861, in Hamilton, New Jesey. We know little about her early life and upbringing, until she enrolled in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania School for Nursing, from which she graduated in 1889, at the age of 28. The school had been founded in 1886. She worked as a private nurse until 1901, when she married and retired from nursing, although she stayed involved as an active alumna of the nursing school. Her diaries detailing her two years of medical education are one of the treasures of the Penn School of Nursing; you may access them here.
The Agnew Clinic, by Thomas Eakins, oil on canvas, 1889, Philadelphia Museum of Art, on loan from the University of Pennsylvania? (Wikimedia commons)
Clymer became a known figure when she was depicted as the operating-room nurse in Thomas Eakins' painting, The Agnew Clinic (1889). David Hayes Agnew was a prominent Philadelphia surgeon and teacher who retired in 1889, and as a present, three graduated or graduating classes from the Penn medical school commissioned the painting from Eakins. It is his largest painting, about 7 by 10 feet in size. Dr. Agnew stands alone at the left; his counterpart on the right is Nurse Clymer, the "Woman in White." The theater audience was comprised of the graduating class of 1889. Each figure is a real portrait.
The Agnew Clinic is often contrasted with Eakins' other painting depicting an operating-room scene, The Gross Clinic (1875), as showing the impact of antisepsis on operating-room procedure in the intervening 14 years. You can see The Gross Clinic at our post on Samuel Gross, as well as our post on Eakins. In the earlier painting, which depicts an amputation, the surgeons all wear dark clothing, which does not show soil or blood, and there is no attempt at preventing contamination of the wound. Indeed, Dr. Gross did not believe in germs or the germ theory of infection. The Agnew Clinic is a much brighter painting, with all the surgeons, and Nurse Clymer, clad in white, so that contamination by body fluids or tissue is visibly apparent.
Detail of The Agnew Clinic, by Thomas Eakins (second image), showing Mary Clymer. The man in the audience at far right is a portrait of Eakins, supposedly painted by his wife (Wikimedia commons)
The Agnew Clinic was somewhat controversial at the time, since it depicted a partial mastectomy, and the patient's right breast, the healthy one, is unnecessarily exposed , not only to the viewer, but to the male medical students looking on. But the depiction of Mary Clymer is without fault, as she is shown as calm, professional, and in eye contact with the anesthetized patient, the only one in the room seemingly concerned with the patient as a person. I do not know why Clymer was chosen as the depicted nurse, but one presumes that she was at the top of her class, personable, and respected and liked by Dr. Agnew.
Eakins wanted to sell photo-reproductions of The Agnew Clinic, but at the time, black-and-white photographs of full-color paintings had unacceptable (to Eakins) tonal ranges. So he painted a copy in black-and-white, with correct tones, and he reproduced that in photogravure. I am not sure he made much money off the deal, since copies of the photogravure (fourth image) are quite scarce.
Black-and-white version of The Agnew Clinic, painted by Thomas Eakins for photo-reproduction, 1889, photogravure, 1893, Philadelphia Museum of Art (philamuseum.org)
It is stated in quite a few places that the University of Pennsylvania placed The Agnew Clinic on permanent loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2007. But I cannot find it on the museum website, and the many links to the painting at the museum take one to the photogravure, not the painting. Nor did I see the painting on my last visit to the museum. So I am not certain where it really is. Perhaps I just missed it. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know, preferably along with a photo. I just want to make sure that Alice Walton doesn’t have it.
William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library and Associate Professor emeritus, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Comments or corrections are welcome; please direct to ashworthw@umkc.edu.
