Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison
E553458
"Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison" is a nonfiction book by Allen M. Hornblum that exposes decades of unethical medical and dermatological experiments conducted on inmates at Philadelphia’s Holmesburg Prison.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison canonical | 1 |
| Holmesburg Prison as a major site of human experimentation | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5875086 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison Context triple: [Holmesburg Prison, subjectOf, Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison]
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A.
The Two Faces of the Ghetto
The Two Faces of the Ghetto is a sociological work by Loïc Wacquant that analyzes the dual role of the urban ghetto as both a site of confinement and a source of community and identity.
-
B.
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
"A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide" is Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize–winning examination of U.S. responses to genocides in the 20th century and the political, moral, and bureaucratic forces that shaped them.
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C.
Doctors' Trial
The Doctors' Trial was a post–World War II Nuremberg military tribunal in which Nazi physicians and medical administrators were prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly for inhumane medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners.
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D.
A Prison Diary
A Prison Diary is a three-volume series of memoirs by British author and former politician Jeffrey Archer, recounting his experiences and observations during his time in prison.
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E.
The Forgotten Prisoners
The Forgotten Prisoners is a landmark 1961 article by Peter Benenson that exposed the plight of political prisoners worldwide and led to the founding of Amnesty International.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison Target entity description: "Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison" is a nonfiction book by Allen M. Hornblum that exposes decades of unethical medical and dermatological experiments conducted on inmates at Philadelphia’s Holmesburg Prison.
-
A.
The Two Faces of the Ghetto
The Two Faces of the Ghetto is a sociological work by Loïc Wacquant that analyzes the dual role of the urban ghetto as both a site of confinement and a source of community and identity.
-
B.
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
"A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide" is Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize–winning examination of U.S. responses to genocides in the 20th century and the political, moral, and bureaucratic forces that shaped them.
-
C.
Doctors' Trial
The Doctors' Trial was a post–World War II Nuremberg military tribunal in which Nazi physicians and medical administrators were prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly for inhumane medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners.
-
D.
A Prison Diary
A Prison Diary is a three-volume series of memoirs by British author and former politician Jeffrey Archer, recounting his experiences and observations during his time in prison.
-
E.
The Forgotten Prisoners
The Forgotten Prisoners is a landmark 1961 article by Peter Benenson that exposed the plight of political prisoners worldwide and led to the founding of Amnesty International.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
history book
ⓘ
nonfiction book ⓘ |
| addresses |
Nuremberg Code in context of U.S. research
ⓘ
linked to:
Nuremberg Code
regulation of human subjects research ⓘ violations of research ethics codes ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
document testimonies of former inmate subjects
ⓘ
expose unethical medical experiments on prisoners ⓘ |
| author | Allen M. Hornblum ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| describes |
financial inducements to prisoners
ⓘ
lack of informed consent ⓘ long-term health consequences for inmates ⓘ racial and class disparities among subjects ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
University of Pennsylvania-affiliated research
ⓘ
chemical exposure experiments ⓘ cosmetic testing on inmates ⓘ dermatologist Albert M. Kligman ⓘ
linked to:
Albert M. Kligman
pharmaceutical company–sponsored experiments ⓘ radiation and dioxin-related studies ⓘ |
| genre |
investigative journalism
ⓘ
medical ethics literature ⓘ nonfiction ⓘ |
| hasFormat | print book ⓘ |
| influenced |
public debate on prisoner research
ⓘ
scholarship on human subjects protections ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Holmesburg Prison
ⓘ
dermatological research ⓘ human experimentation ⓘ informed consent ⓘ medical ethics ⓘ prisoners as research subjects ⓘ research abuses in prisons ⓘ |
| notableFor |
detailed archival research
ⓘ
first comprehensive public account of Holmesburg experiments ⓘ |
| placeDescribed |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
ⓘ
linked to:
Philadelphia
|
| publicationYear | 1998 ⓘ |
| publisher |
Routledge
ⓘ
linked to:
Routledge & Kegan Paul
|
| settingOfNarrative | Holmesburg Prison ⓘ |
| timePeriodDescribed |
1950s
ⓘ
1960s ⓘ 1970s ⓘ |
| titleOrigin | phrase used by Albert M. Kligman about prisoners’ skin ⓘ |
| usedIn |
bioethics courses
ⓘ
criminal justice and prison studies courses ⓘ history of medicine courses ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison Description of subject: "Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison" is a nonfiction book by Allen M. Hornblum that exposes decades of unethical medical and dermatological experiments conducted on inmates at Philadelphia’s Holmesburg Prison.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison