May Hyman Lesser
1927-2001
Over the past three decades, May Lesser immersed herself in the field
of medicine and created an incredible body of artwork chronicling the
study and practice of medicine. Through her drawings, color etchings,
and commentary, she has not only traced the evolutionary transformation
of medical students into practicing physicians but has also successfully
interwoven the human side of medical education and the clinical environment
of medicine into her work.
Ms. Lesser had a strong association with the field of medicine throughout
her life. The daughter, wife, and mother of physicians, she possessed
a keen sense of the culture of medicine. As a child, her fascination
with the beautiful steel engravings of her father's anatomy, obstetrics,
and surgery books led to a lifelong passion for drawing and etching.
In 1967, she contacted the chairman of the anatomy department at the
UCLA School of Medicine and requested permission to attend the anatomy
labs in order to learn human bone and muscle anatomy better. In the
introduction to her first book, The Art of Learning Medicine,
she describes her initial experience at UCLA, which eventually led her
to follow the Class of '71 through four years of medical school.
Below, in her own words, Ms. Lesser describes her initial experiences
in the world of art and and medicine:
I had gone to UCLA Medical School to study more anatomy, feeling
that studying more structure would be helpful to me. The professor of
anatomy allowed me to audit lectures, and then when he saw my first
plate of the sagittal series from sections of the human head embedded
in clear plastic in the hallway cases, and saw how beautiful and intricate
I found the structures and how filled up I was with the material, he
permitted me to come to the Saturday dissection laboratory with the
students.
