Semmelweis-Defender of Motherhood, from "The History of Medicine" / Robert Thom
About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- UMHS.26
- Title
- Semmelweis-Defender of Motherhood, from "The History of Medicine"
- Artist
- Robert Thom
- Artist Nationality
- American
- Artist Life Dates
- 1915-1979
- Medium and Support
- oil on canvas
- Object Creation Date
- circa 1952
- Object Creation Place
- North and Central America (continent)
- United States (nation)
- Michigan (state)
- Creation Place 1
- North and Central America (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- United States (nation)
- Creation Place 3
- Michigan (state)
- Dimensions
- 144.78 cm x 116.84 cm (57 in. x 46 in.)
- Century
- 20th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Painting
- Physical Description
- Hungarian physician Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (1818-1865), while Assistant at the First Obstetric Clinic of Vienna's great Allgemeine Krankenhaus in 1847, discovered means of preventing puerperal fever: he insisted that physicians and medical students wash their hands in chlorinated solution before entering obstetric wards and again before examining each patient. His rule was much resented and opposed - but hundreds of mothers' lives were saved. Though his doctrine was proved repeatedly, in hospitals in Vienna and in Budapest, most of his contemporaries opposed it; and, both depressed from worry and broken-hearted from disappointment, Semmelweis died at age 47, of blood poisoning, the infection he had fought so valiantly to prevent in mothers under his care.
- Secondary Keywords
- disciplines
- health sciences
- people
- people (agents)
- people and culture
- people by occupation
- people in health and medicine
- people in science-related occupations
- science and related disciplines
- scientists and people in science-related occupations
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Record
- UMHS.26
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-umhs.26/umhs.26.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Cite this Item
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- Full citation
-
"Semmelweis-Defender of Motherhood, from "The History of Medicine"; Robert Thom." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-umhs.26/umhs.26.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 06, 2025.
