The 11 female surgeons celebrated in new Scottish museum painting 'addressing' gender imbalance

The new painting will be hung at Edinburgh’s Surgeons’ Hall and will address a gender imbalance at the museum.

Eleven female surgeons are to be celebrated in a new painting unveiled at Edinburgh’s Surgeons’ Hall aimed at “addressing the imbalance” in the institution.

The commission, a large-scale oil on canvas artwork, has been described as a “significant step forward” in increasing the representation of women held in the collections at the venue.

Scotland-based artist Kirstin Mackinnon in the foreground, with a smaller version of the painting | Contributed

The painting, titled Eleven Surgeons, by Scotland-based artist Kirstin Mackinnon, represents the namesakes and nine recipients of the Hunter-Doig medal, an award given to exceptional female Fellow and Members of the College for excellence within the surgical profession.

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The medal is named after surgeons Alice Headwards Hunter, who was born in the 1880s and died in 1973, and Caroline Doig, who lived from 1938 to 2019. Ms Hunter was the first woman to become a Fellow of the College in 1920 and Miss Doig was the first woman elected to Council of the College in 1984.

The painting titled Eleven Surgeons | Contributed

Louise Wilkie, curator of Surgeons’ Hall Museums, said: “Currently only three out of the 144 portraits in the collections here feature women, and we’re dedicated to addressing this imbalance.

“We feel it is incredibly important to showcase the contributions of female surgeons throughout the years and hope this newest addition to the collection will demonstrate how the surgical profession has evolved. We hope by telling this story to inspire the next generation of surgeons by paying tribute to those who have paved the way.”

Clare McNaught, vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd), said: “Honouring and educating others about the women who have played a significant role in shaping the college as we know it today, and in championing the rights of women in the medical field, is something we feel very strongly about.”

Surgeons’ Hall Museums, part of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, commissioned the painting within a wider initiative celebrating women’s contributions to surgery.

This includes a temporary exhibition, a permanent museum display, a programme of oral history collecting to secure the histories of living female surgeons, and an extensive programme of learning and engagement activities running throughout this year and 2026.