FREDERICK BANTING: MEDICAL INNOVATOR, AMATEUR ARTIST

Walk Of Fame | Martin Bierens

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Writing this article in March 2020, there is one thing on my mind, and I would wager a bet that it is the same thing that is on everybody’s mind at the moment. It is easy for us to get bogged down in the negatives of the situation, but it is important to remember that this time will pass. For this reason, I have decided to dedicate the final Musings article of my first year to the man who solved one of the biggest medical issues of his time, Canadian medical scientist, and co-discoverer of insulin Frederick Banting.

Dr. Frederick Banting (I guess they hadn't learned smoking was bad yet) Source.

It is extremely hard to overstate the need for insulin. The care was inhumane, starving patients was the typical treatment, known by a more pleasant, and fooling name, dietary restriction. I do not want to get into the science of diabetes, and the pain and suffering it caused. Rather, I think it is more important to humanize what these patients went through as the result of, at the time essentially an untreatable illness. I implore you to listen to a short ten-minute episode of the podcast, The Memory Palace and the story of “Elizabeth,” after which you will understand what this drug means to the people who need it.

Banting first became interested in diabetes in 1920 as a medical student at the University of Western Ontario. Banting read the work of other doctors who had discovered that insulin production and diabetes were related to the pancreas. After extensive, and successful research on animals with fellow co-discoverer Charles Best, in spring 1922, Banting established a private practice in Toronto to treat patients. Banting’s breakthrough earned him, and his fellow researchers, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in 1923.

The Banting House Museum in London, Ontario. Source.

Unsurprisingly, there are multiple museums dedicated to the life of Frederick Banting and the discovery of insulin. The Banting House Museum is located in his former home in London, Ontario where he lived while working towards his discovery. On the museum's website, they have an amazing section called, "Dear Dr. Banting," an open forum in which people can express their gratitude to him. The page is both inspiring, emotional, and overwhelming all at the same time. The house was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1997. The Banting Interpretation Centre located in Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland, is the other museum dedicated to Banting and focuses on the plane crash that took his life in 1941.

Dr. Frederick Banting (right) and A.Y. Jackson (left) on their sketching expedition along the St. Lawrence River. Source.

What I did not expect of Frederick Banting is that he was actually a prolific amateur artist, with ties to members of the Group of Seven. Banting developed a keen interest in painting starting in 1921, and soon became close friends with A.Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris. Much like Jackson and Harris, Banting had an interest in depicting Canadian landscapes, and even joined Jackson and Harris on sketching trips, joining Jackson on a trip along the St. Lawrence River into Quebec, and Harris on a trip to the Northwest Territories.

Banting was arguably the best-known amateur painter in the Canadian art-scene by the time of his death in 1941. His work is obviously influenced by the work of Jackson, and Harris. Banting himself actually had an influence on Lawren Harris, the former director of Collections and Research at the AGO, Dennis Reid, said that Banting’s art was certainly, “part of the Jackson story.”

One of Banting's paintings. Source.

Many years after his death, Frederick Banting was voted as the fourth greatest Canadian in 2004, as part of a CBC program, The Greatest Canadian. The only people to top Banting were Tommy Douglas, Terry Fox, and Pierre Trudeau.

Ninety-seven years ago Banting discovered insulin and was rightfully celebrated for the gift he gave humanity. Hopefully, we will soon have someone was can celebrate in the same way we celebrated Banting for their discovery of a cure. It would be amazing to write a Musings article in the future telling you all about the museum that has been set up for this, as of yet, unknown hero. But until then, we can continue to celebrate the medical contributions and art of Frederick Banting.

For more information on Frederick Banting, check out former Musings contributor Kathryn Methot's article Sir Frederick Banting: Doctor, Nobel Laureate, Painter.