Urinary System: Kidney

This comprehensive medical illustration, I am honored to say, is entering the Lloyd Museum's collection along with four other pieces. This particular illustration was done in 1987 on a beautiful sheet of Canson paper, and has a piece of clear acetate taped to the top. The acetate was imprinted using a method called PMT or "Photo Mechanical Transfer" which was very common in the 1980's but soon became obsolete (computers struck again!).

So on the top is the acetate inked PMT illustration. On the flip side are very fragile and soft pastels and carbon dust. What's shown is a sectioned kidney, then to the right an enlargement of the functioning tubules of the kidney's system. The big lumpy round thing at the bottom left is actually microscopic in size, and of all things is called the glomerulus. Inside of this structure, the blood is filtered before it is sent back into the circulatory system.

This illustration was produced for a college-level textbook audience. The Vesalius Trust describes their mission as "Supporting research and education in visual communications for the medical and life sciences."*

*from the Vesalius Trust website