Watercolor paintings such as this one documented the traumatic effects of chemical exposure on soldiers during World War I. Color paintings were more illustrative of the nature of the injuries than black-and-white photos of that period. The Army Medical Museum dispatched illustrators to France to document injuries such as this one during and after war. This painting depicts Private Jacob Leifer of New York, New York, Company M, 16th Infantry, showing extensive first-degree mustard gas burns on Leifer’s entire back. Leifer died of bronchopneumonia due to gas poisoning and was autopsied at Base Hospital No. 15, Chaumont, France, on October 10, 1918. The artist, Sgt. Elliott R. Brainard of New York (1894-1937) was assigned to Museum Unit 1, and after the war, he worked at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C. (Artist: Sgt. E. Brainard, watercolor, gouache, 1918) (Brainard 00002/ OHA 229.39.05, Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine)
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Last Updated: December 05, 2018