This folder of cartoons relates to a visit made to the U.S.A. by Professor (later Sir) Charles Sherrington (1857-1952) (George Holt Professor of Physiology, 1895-1913), his wife, Ethel Mary Sherrington (d.1933), and their young son, Charles (Ely Rose Sherrington), in 1903.

Linen-covered folder, lined with silk, on the front of which is embroidered, in coloured thread, 'A Trip to America' above a depiction of two ship's masts bearing flags of the U.S.A., Great Britain, etc.

In the folder, which is signed by 'Jenny Fröhlich 1903', are individual watercolour cartoons (incorporating photographs of the heads of Professor and Mrs. Sherrington and their son), each signed 'J.F.', captioned:

• 'I. Making the list and giving instructions'
• 'II. Is there no land in sight?!'
• 'III. Solemn reception in America'
• 'IV.Great Christopher Columbus! Sherrington is here, aoh!!!!'
• 'V. Do you really intend to break my heart?'
• 'VI. Oh, don't, Charley, please!'

In his 'Memories', republished as Appendix 17 of John C. Eccles and William C. Gibson, Sherrington: his life and thought (Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1979), the Sherringtons' son, Mr. C.E.R. Sherrington, wrote: 'In 1903 he [Charles Sherrington] received the Hon.Degree of LL.D. at Toronto University, delivering the dedicatory address at the opening of the new medical buildings. He sailed on the "New England" - a Dominion Line vessel - on September 16th, stayed with Macallum at Toronto, delivered an address at Chicago University - a city he greatly admired - and returned by the "Cedric" from New York.' (p.250)

Miss Unity Sherrington notes that the artist responsible for the folder, Jenny Fröhlich, was the [daughter] of the distinguished Austrian physiologist, Dr. Alfred Fröhlich (1871-1953), well known for his description of the so-called adiposo-genital syndrome. Dr. Alfred Fröhlich visited Liverpool and undertook some research on visiting Professor Sherrington; in their joint paper, 'Observations on the Excitable Cortex of the Chimpanzee, Orang-Utan, and Gorilla', published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology, vol.11 (1917), A.S.F. Leyton and C.S. Sherrington acknowledge the assistance of, amongst others, Dr. Fröhlich. Miss Sherrington notes that one of Jenny Fröhlich's drawings has almost certainly been influenced by a book given to her father in 1899: Mrs Ernest Ames (drawings) and Ernest Ames (words), Really and Truly (Edward Arnold, London, n.d.), a politically incorrect survey of Britain's achievements in the 19th century. This suggests that Jenny Fröhlich was familiar with the Sherringtons' Liverpool home, 16 Grove Park, where the Fröhlichs may have stayed while in Liverpool.