Gilbert, Stephen G.

Stephen Goltra Gilbert was born 18 January 1931 in Portland, Oregon. He received a degree in art in a joint degree program with the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) in 1952, with a thesis on woodcarving. Following graduation, Gilbert spent three years in the U.S Army Medical Corps and after his discharge, he was accepted to a three-year program to study medical illustration with Muriel McLatchie Miller at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Gilbert received his first job as a medical illustrator from Dr. John Bonica at the Tacoma General Hospital in Washington. Between 1958 and 1961, Gilbert worked as a medical artist for the School of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1961, Gilbert left his position at the University of Washington to work on his own anatomical drawings. He moved to farm in Albany, Oregon and over the period of twelve years produced six zoological anatomical atlases includes: Pictorial Anatomy of the Fetal Pig (1963), Pictorial Anatomy of the Frog (1965), Atlas of General Zoology (1965), Pictorial Anatomy of the Cat (1968), Ms Coll 289 Gilbert (Stephen) Drawings 2 Pictorial Anatomy of the Dogfish (1973) and Pictorial Anatomy of the Necturus (1973). In 1973, Gilbert joined Arts as Applied to Medicine program at the University of Toronto as a part-time lecturer. Between 1982 and 1985, Gilbert spent each summer in Japan training Yuzuru Matsuda’s staff in medical illustration. Gilbert was very successful at the University of Toronto, and was made a full professor in 1995. He also authored Pictorial Human Embryology in 1989 and Outline of Cat Anatomy with Reference to the Human in 1999, both with the University of Toronto Press. One of Gilbert’s ongoing projects was human anatomical illustrations for Dr. Anne Agur, a professor at the University of Toronto and the current editor of Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy. Gilbert retired in 2010 but continued to teach classes as a Professor Emeritus in pen and ink drawing.

Gilbert’s other passion was tattoos. He received his first tattoo at the age of 15, and according to Dino Pulera in 2006, “today, he is so covered with tattoos that he only has a small patch of ‘blank canvas’ remaining behind his left knee.” Gilbert worked as a tattoo artist and historian and edited and introduced the text Tattoo History: A Source Book: An Anthology of Historical Records of Tattooing throughout the World (2000) (as Steve Gilbert). Gilbert died 21 February 2014 of Parkinson’s disease.