The 21st Century Matriarch

At 2 AM, October 31, 1920, Frederick Banting woke up and wrote down a 25-word hypothesis becoming ‘the man who discovered insulin.’

It happened in the house in London, Ontario after he completed a literature review prior to preparing a lecture on the pancreas and metabolism for the new medical school at Western University. He only lived in the house for 10 months, returning to Toronto where he could access facilities for diabetes research. The transition from idea to clinical practice happened very quickly; he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923.

Banting House is open for tours with a focus on Banting’s life as a doctor and artist…and the impact his medical contribution had (and continues to have) for so many people. The room where he slept…and recorded his idea…is small with original linoleum and restored wallpaper…lumpy bed. The house was a rooming house for a time after Banting lived there but was always well-maintained.

The museum also exhibits artifacts donated by the family of Teddy Ryder, one of Banting’s first patients. He had Type I diabetes and was dying when he got his first insulin injection from Banting when he was 6 years old in 1922. At the time, each batch of insulin was tested for potency since the production was still being done by the researchers in a lab. Teddy lived to be 77 years old! There is an online exhibit about Teddy Ryder on the museum’s web site.

Painting was Banting’s method of escape and relaxation from his professional life and he was influenced by the Group of Seven….often travelled with A.Y. Jackson to paint the Canadian Landscape. One of the rooms of the museum exhibits some of his work. At the time of his death in 1941, Banting was anticipating retirement from medicine to spend more time on painting.