Oscar V. Batson photograph and illustration collection

Collection

Identifier: P-BAT

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of photographs, negatives, pencil drawings, and other images related to Dr. Oscar Batson's work. It was donated to the Mütter Museum by his wife, Mrs. Eleanor Batson, along with numerous medical instruments and pathological specimens. The collection of photographs was transferred to the Library on September 22, 2016.

Please see the link below for an inventory list.

Dates

circa 1940s-1960s; undated

Creator

Batson, Oscar V. (Oscar Vivian) (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Dr. Oscar Vivian Batson was born on November 10, 1894. He graduated first in his class from the Sedalia High School and in the fall of 1912 entered the University of Missouri at Columbia. There, he came under the influence of Clarence M. Jackson and subsequently Eliot R. Clark, Professors of Anatomy, and he determined that he would become a professional anatomist. It was there that he began his night work and his night habits. Although the anatomy building was locked at night, he found a way to enter and began doing his dissections at nights and on Sundays and holidays. Under Professor Clark's supervision he mastered the technique of injecting chick embryos and this provided the basic methodology for the experimental work for his master's degree.

It was during this period that he determined to obtain the M.D. degree because he felt that since human anatomy was fundamentally a medical school subject, the teacher should know something about the whole field of medicine. Two of his teachers at the University of Missouri were Herman Shlunt, Professor of Chemistry and Harvey Rentschler, Professor of Physics. It was under these men that his interest in radiology developed and this was to have great influence on his contributions and associations over the subsequent years. It was Professor Rentschler who first introduced him to the Coolidge Tube and allowed him to work with X-ray equipment.

He married Eleanor H. Neumann in 1918 and received his master's degree in 1918, also. He took the last two years of medicine at St. Louis University and was granted an M.D. degree in 1920. While in St. Louis he worked with Dr. Leroy Santee and his interest in radiology and its application to anatomy was further stimulated and enhanced. He was one of the pioneers in stressing that anatomy and radiology were helpmates and he was probably the first to illustrate joint form and function with the X-ray plate and later with the fluoroscopic screen in his teachings.

Batson became Instructor of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin 1in 1920, and moved to Cincinnati in 1921 as Assistant Professor of Anatomy. At the age of 32 he was given full rank and had the distinction of being the youngest Professor of Anatomy in the United States. During the Cincinnati years he maintained an even stronger relationship with his radiological colleagues and made fluoroscopic demonstrations and film studies an integral part of the course in freshman anatomy. It was during this time that he had occasion to meet Professor Arthur Schuler from Vienna who made a tremendous impression upon him and stimulated his interest in the venous system.

In 1933 Dr. Batson was asked to come to the University of Pennsylvania as Professor of Anatomy in the Graduate School of Medicine. One of the attractive things about coming to Philadelphia was that new X-ray equipment was being installed in the anatomy laboratory. He came here in 1933 as Professor of Anatomy and served in that position until his retirement from the Chairmanship in 1963, though his active participation in teaching and in research continued until several years before his death. In 1975 at the age of 82, he was an invited Chairman at the International Congress of Anatomy which convened in Tokyo.

Batson's major contributions relate to the vertebral system of veins. Batson developed a satisfactory injection and corrosion technique which allowed him to visualize the vascular system as a complete unit. He was struck by the extent and complexity of the vertebral venous system which now appeared as a total entity in the same specimen. As a result of his investigations, elective ligations of the inferior vena cava became an accepted operative procedure.

Batson was, for many years, a practicing otolaryngologist and served in various clinical capacities at the Philadelphia General Hospital, Episcopal Hospital and Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He went into otolaryngology because of his special interest in the skull and the anatomy of the head. He was intrigued by the fact that the relations are fixed in the skull and therefore the X-ray film would be a particularly precise way of recording and studying those relationships.

Batson received many honors, including honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Missouri and the St. Louis University. He was the recipient of the American Roentgen Ray Society's Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen Medal, and in 1956 he delivered the Caldwell Lecture of the American Roentgen Ray Society and received the Caldwell Medal. He has received the Key of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and the AMA's Hektoen Gold Medal. Adept at graphic illustrations, his exhibits at the AMA and American Roentgen Ray Society won many awards. He served as Vice President of the American Association of Anatomists. He served as Secretary and later Chairman of the section on Otolaryngology of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. The University of Pennsylvania Medical School's Class of 1945 dedicated their yearbook to him. Because of his studies on the vertebral venous circulation, Batson is listed among the 225 pioneers in the two volume Classic Descriptions in Diagnostic Roentgenology, edited by Andre Johannes Bruwer and published in 1964. He is the only anatomist so listed. He was a member of many professional societies and served on the editorial board of the American Journal of Roentgenology. He was an Honorary Member of the Kansas City Surgical Society and an Honorary Life Member of the Philadelphia Roentgen Ray Society.

Batson passed away on November 11, 1979.

Excerpted from:

Nemir, Paul, Jr. "Memoir of Oscar Batson." Transactions and Studies of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Series V, Vol. II, no 1 (March 1980): 67-70.