Amanda Mahoney, B.S.N., R.N.<br/>Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania

Thursday, March 5, 2009, 1:00 am EST

Time: 12:15 p.m.

Place: 2U Conference Room, Room 2019, Claire Fagin Hall

University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing


Mary V. Clymer, the nurse featured in Thomas Eakins' painting "The Agnew Clinic," was an 1889 graduate of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Her clinical diaries and class notes have been used by art historians to support theories on both Eakins' intended message within the painting and 19th-century attitudes towards surgery and the female body. These theories, as well as a brief biography of Clymer, will be included in this discussion.