Bassett Collection on LaneConnex

The entire Bassett Collection of anatomical images is now available for viewing online on the Lane Library website, LaneConnex.

David L. Bassett was awarded his MD by Stanford University School of Medicine in 1939 and pursued a career teaching and researching anatomy at Stanford, Harvard, and the University of Washington. In 1948 Bassett met photographer William Gruber, inventor of the Viewmaster system of stereoscopic imagery. Together, Bassett and Gruber collaborated on a seventeen-year project of creating three-dimensional photographic images of human anatomy using innovations in dissection pioneered by Dr. Bassett. Three artists developed detailed line drawings based on the photographs: Ruth Ogren, Harriet O'Neill, and Lorene Segal. 1,547 photographic images and accompanying drawings were compiled into a 24-volume Stereoscopic Atlas of Human Anatomy, completed in 1962. Following Dr. Bassett's death, the collection was curated by Dr. Robert Chase, professor in the Department of Surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine; and images from the collection made available for educational purposes though such venues as SUMMIT at Stanford. Recently the entire collection has been turned over to the archives in Lane Medical Library, which is now proud to make digital versions of all the images available in a free and fully searchable format on the library website, LaneConnex.

For permissions information regarding the use of these images, please contact Drew Bourn at dbourn@stanford.edu

Posted on December 12, 2008 04:59 PM

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