Thomas Eakins’ The Agnew Clinic was commissioned by the medical school’s Class of 1889 to commemorate the retirement of Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, the John Rhea Barton Professor of Surgery, and was unveiled at that year’s Commencement exercises. The Class was approaching its 20th Reunion when the painting was reproduced on the front page of the May 15, 1909 issue of Old Penn (renamed The Pennsylvania Gazette about a decade later), with a key to the names of those depicted—including Eakins himself (No. 6).
