Robert A. Chase

Dr. Robert A. Chase, Emile Holman Professor of Surgery Emeritus at Stanford University.

In 1963 Dr. Robert Chase was chairman of the Department of Surgery at Stanford where he discovered the original STEREOSCOPIC ATLAS OF HUMAN ANATOMY. He was very interested in the accurate, perfect dissections of David Bassett as well as the beautiful stereo photos by William Gruber. He became acquainted with Dr. Bassett who came back to visit Stanford over the years. In 1982, the View-Master company notified Dr. Bassett's widow Lucille that they were terminating publication of the Atlas. Mrs. Bassett was able to acquire all the original materials which were sent to Stanford and she appointed Dr. Chase curator of the collection. Multiple copies of the 35mm 3D slide pairs were made, including one for the Surgeon General's library. In 1994 Dr. Chase published "A STEREOSCOPIC ATLAS OF HUMAN ANATOMY A Bassett Gruber Legacy" containing 12 View-Master reels (84 3d images) with accompanying drawings and notes. In 1999 all slides were scanned in the Kodak PhotoCD process, but only recently has technology allowed these images to easily be seen digitally in full HD stereoscopic 3D.