Anne Crawford Acheson

This week’s inspirational woman is Anne Crawford Acheson who helped to invent plaster casts. Anne was born in 1882 and loved art as a child which compelled her to study at Victoria College in Belfast as well as studying sculpture in London at the Royal College of Art. Unfortunately, WWI started whilst she was in London. Anne wanted to contribute to the war effort when she saw injured soldiers returning so she joined the Surgical Requisites Association (SRA) and made bandages and antiseptic swabs. Anne and another sculptor called Elinor Hallé developed arm cradles together because they knew about how the human body moves through their previous work. These cradles were made using papier maché. Before this, broken limbs were set with wooden splints which could cause the break to heal incorrectly. She developed this further and eventually it became the plaster cast we see today. Anne was awarded a CBE in 1919 for her work during WWI.

#fromwhichitallSTEMmed #stem #steam

References:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zhjm8xs