Vivien Thomas in the Lab

Dublin Core

Title

Vivien Thomas in the Lab

Subject

Surgery

Description

One of possibly two known images of Vivien Thomas at Vanderbilt. Thomas came to work for Vanderbilt Medical School with the job title of assistant janitor, but quickly became a skilled surgical technician and brilliant researcher. In 1940, when Johns Hopkins recruited Dr. Alfred Blalock as the new chair of their surgery department, Blalock insisted that Thomas go with him. Several years later, Blalock, Thomas, and Dr. Helen Taussig pioneered at Hopkins the first surgical therapy for blue baby syndrome.

Here Thomas is shown in the experimental surgery lab.

Creator

Joseph Beard

Source

Vanderbilt University History of Medicine Collections

Date

1930 (circa)

Rights

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Identifier

Thomas_Vivien_03

Item Type Metadata

People Depicted

Ordered left to right as they appear in the image, starting from the top left.

Original Format

Photographic print

Physical Dimensions

8 in. x 10 in.

Citation

Joseph Beard, “Vivien Thomas in the Lab,” VUMC Through Time: A Photographic Archive, accessed August 1, 2026, https://eblthroughtime.library.vanderbilt.edu/items/show/11736.

Output Formats