Carolina’s Health Sciences Library is now home to a collection of works and papers of the late Frank H. Netter, M.D., one of the twentieth century’s leading medical illustrators. The gift of Francine Netter Carlson, Netter’s daughter, the collection includes lecture notes and personal reminiscences. This past fall the library drew on the collection for the exhibit “Legacy of a Lifetime: The Medical Illustrations of Frank H. Netter, M.D.”

Netter’s work has a decided painterly quality. He studied at the National Academy of Design in New York and by the mid-1920s was a successful commercial artist, regularly published in the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and the New York Times.

Following his mother’s urging, Netter attended New York University Medical School, graduating in 1931. By the mid-1930s, Netter had joined his medical knowledge with his artistic ability to produce illustrations for the Ciba Pharmaceutical Company.

His long association with Ciba yielded numerous published volumes of his illustrations. The multivolume work, The Netter Collection of Medical Illustrations, portrays human anatomy, pathology, and physiology and was published over a span of 40 years.

Don’t be misled by the artistry of his illustrations—clarity was ever his ultimate goal. If an illustration failed to make its point, it had no value to him. Netter’s illustrations continue to be essential learning tools for health-sciences students at Carolina and across the nation.