Poster Board Number: 100
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Co-authors:
Sabine Hildebrandt, MD - Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School; Aleteia Greenwood, M.L.I.S. - UBC library; Shelly Rosenblum, PhD - Belkin Gallery UBC; Claudia Krebs, MD PhD, FAAA - Cellular and Physiological Sciences,Faculty of Medicine; HIVE Faculty of Arts, University of British Columbia - Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Abstract Body : The Pernkopf Atlas created in Vienna in large parts during the National Socialist (Nazi) Regime has been well documented through research into its creation and its legacy. The ethical controversy surrounding the atlas centers on the provenance of the bodies depicted, which with high likelihood included victims of the Nazi regime from Gestapo execution sites, and the political alignment of both Perknopf and the illustrators with the Nazi Regime. The Pernkopf Atlas was printed using a then new four colour chromolithography printing technique and the ample supply of bodies of the executed supported the creation of unique and precise anatomical dissections in a topographical and sequential dissection view. It has been argued that these unique views and the level of detail of the atlas can be a reason to still use the atlas in particular for planning of complex surgeries.
However, Pernkopf and his illustrators did not create this atlas in a vacuum: they had access to the best atlases of their time through the Vienna University Library and most likely through collections in the Anatomy Department and personal collections. Atlases known to be in circulation at the time were the Hirschfeld Atlas published 1853, the Toldt Atlas, 1903, the Sobotta Atlas, 1904, and the Spalteholz Atlas, 1895-1903. We set out to investigate the influence of these antecedents on the creation of the Pernkopf Atlas with the specific goal of finding alternatives to the Pernkopf illustrations, in particular for the peripheral nervous system and the regional anatomy of the head and neck. We compared the level of detail and the anatomical gaze or view onto the dissections between the Pernkopf Atlas and (1) the Hirschfeld Atlas, (2) the Toldt Atlas (3) the Sobotta Atlas, and (4) the Spalteholz Atlas.
We found that the level of detail in the Hirschfeld atlas for the peripheral nervous system is equal to or superior to the Pernkopf Atlas and we suspect that Pernkopf wanted to create a new “gold standard” with his atlas displacing the legacy of the Hirschfeld atlas. The Spalteholz Atlas also worked with talented illustrators who created compelling views of the head and neck, some of these illustrations may have at least inspired the illustrators of the Pernkopf Atlas. The similarities with the Toldt Atlas were to be expected, given the mentorship role Toldt played for Pernkopf.
In summary, while the Pernkopf Atlas did create unique, never before seen illustrations, there are alternatives to the Pernkopf illustrations in the historical record that can be re-mastered and re-published, in particular for the peripheral nervous system. This would relegate the Pernkopf Atlas to Special Collections to be used in the study of ethics and anatomy and the history of medicine.
