Tooth Extraction c. 1840s - 1850s

William Tylee Ranney made this pen and brown ink and wash drawing, called *Tooth Extraction*, sometime in the mid-19th century. Ranney was an American painter, known for his depictions of Western life, a romantic vision, not of genteel society, but of rugged frontiersmen. In this small work, Ranney turns his observant eye to a more quotidian, although no less fraught, subject. Here we see a man seated on a barrel, as a dentist extracts his tooth, while another man holds him tightly. It's a scene that is both humorous and painful. What I find particularly evocative here is the intersection of pain and class. The tooth extraction takes place in what seems to be a public space. There is no elaborate chair or medical setting, only a barrel and the physical strength of another person. We are left to consider the economics of pain and the reality of healthcare in 19th century America.