The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital possesses one of the largest collections of medical portraits of any UK hospital outside London. This collection is largely the creation of Charles Williams, a surgeon at the former Norfolk and Norwich Hospital from 1869 to 1906, who decided to mark the Hospital's centenary in 1871 by assembling a collection of portraits of members of the Hospital's consultant medical staff since its foundation.

This collection was personally funded by Williams, who either persuaded his friends to donate their paintings, purchased them himself or paid for copies to be made of others' originals. His efforts were lauded in The Lancet and by 1890, when he compiled a catalogue, Williams had amassed 37 portraits (not all oils), covering all bar eight of the medical staff from the period 1771 to 1871. The most notable portrait in the collection post dates Williams' efforts though; the Hospital marked the retirement of its preeminent surgeon, William Cadge, in 1890 by commissioning a portrait painted by Sir Hubert von Herkomer.