Making bodies, making kin: Storytelling and the professionalization of medical illustrators in North America

Contemporary concerns about diversity and inclusion in medical practice demand a more nuanced understanding of medical illustrations as part of a larger system of medical knowledge informed by historical and economic conditions in which they are produced. This dissertation explores the professionalization, pedagogy, and practices of medical illustrators in North America since the First World War. I analyse medical illustrators’ professional formation and epistemic culture through a combination of archival research, interviews, and participant observation in graduate programs and professional gatherings, paying close attention to the role of gender in disciplinary formation. Graduate education transforms students from epistemic misfits into “storytellers” capable of bridging cultural binaries of art and science by reasserting colonial hierarchies of knowledge. In contrast to the patriarchal “founding father” narrative of professional emergence, the structural work of professionalization such as standardizing training and organizing professional bodies was carried out largely by female illustrators. Emphasis on metaphors of “family” and “storytelling” has enabled a feminized group of scientific workers to navigate an uncertain social and economic position by situating their knowledge practices within established institutions and forms of authority. However, positioning medical illustrators as subservient and limiting their knowledge claims ensures their continued invisibility as expert knowledge workers and limits their ability to challenge colonial conventions of representation. Exploring the making of medical illustrators presents an opportunity to reimagine their role in making medical knowledge.