Several years ago, during a summer research experience at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., Dr. Charles Roberts watched his father, Dr. William Roberts, collaborate with medical illustrator Leon Schlossberg. Schlossberg made monthly visits to the lab from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Together, the illustrator and the surgeon created vivid illustrations of cardiovascular conditions in pen-and-ink and charcoal. Schlossberg learned under the original medical illustrator at Johns Hopkins, Max Broedel, who was responsible for starting the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine in the teaching and research facility. Schlossberg became the premier medical illustrator of his generation and earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Medical Illustrators in 1990.
Both Drs. Roberts now work on the Dallas campus of Baylor Scott & White Health in cardiovascular specialties. Dr. Charles Roberts recently brought 35 of the illustrations of aortic conditions to the Baylor campus. These illustrations will soon be prominently displayed on the walls of the Aortic Center, to be located on the first floor of Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital – Dallas.
“I recently went through several crates of these original illustrations and realized that, in addition to being beautiful art, many of the ones depicting aortic conditions such as aneurysm or dissection may be good educational resources for patients and families who visit the Aortic Center,” Dr. Roberts says.
