Edward Jenner among patients in the Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital at St. Pancras (Detail)
James Gillray · James Gillray, 1802. Hand-colored etching.
Gillray pictures Edward Jenner vaccinating a young woman while the room erupts into grotesque chaos: recipients sprout cow heads from their bodies, a visual literalization of anti-vaccination panic circulating in 1802 London. The class caricature is pointed — working-class bodies are rendered as coarse and bovine, their fears mocked as ignorant superstition, while Jenner stands composed and authoritative. A container labeled "Vaccine Pock" anchors the scene in contemporary medical controversy. Etched in Gillray's densest style, every face distorted to its satirical extreme, the print descends directly from Hogarth's moral crowd scenes and anticipates the sequential visual storytelling — panel logic, readable figures, layered gags — that would migrate into newspaper comic strips and ultimately the comic book page.
About this artifact
- Creator
- James Gillray
- Date
- James Gillray, 1802. Hand-colored etching.
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
- Restoration
- Digitally restored and hosted by ComicBooks.com · high-resolution version available.
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