Essay question: "How does Ulrich use additional sources to interpret Martha’s diary?" Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in his A Midwife’s Tale showed how he approached the pieces of Martha Ballard’s medical diary. He employed other additional sources to suggest the context of Martha’s diary, explain Martha’s motivation for keeping the diary, interpret her diction style in the diary, and evaluate her sensibility as a midwife. As for outlining the very situation in which Martha’s diaries were written, Ulrich used a range of historical sources to piece together the context for her compilation of such a detailed record of medical dissection. Ulrich first cited the ‘New England Weekly Journal of February 10, 1736’ that covered a reportage of …show more content…
William Hunter was a distinguished London anatomist and obstetrician of the eighteenth century. He, among their ‘British physicians’, would occasionally ‘invite midwives to observe’ dissections. This indicates that there is practical need that doctors need some sort of help and witness for dissections, explain in part what Martha was invited and was at the scene for several anatomies. Besides, Ulrich went onto comment on ‘Kennebec doctors’ that they also ‘wanted to see rather than read about the interior of the human body’. Juxtaposing Martha’s careful record of ‘the details of each dissection’, Ulrich concluded that she herself also shared the doctors’ curiosity. This would suggest that Martha was at the scene because she was eager and willing to witness how human dissections unfolded, just out of curiosity. As for interpreting the choosing of words in Martha’s diary, Ulrich compared the work of Albertus Haller. Albertus had written works which were ‘published in America in Martha’s lifetime’. One of the works had described the structure of ‘lungs’. In contrast, Martha did not use the term ‘lungs’, but ‘lights’. This comparison led to a conclusion that Martha was characterised by ‘rural experience as much as rural education’. This helped to explain that Martha was not receiving formal education for man-midwifery, or for broader medicine, which
Even in the medical field, male doctors were dominate to the hundreds of well educated midwives. “Male physicians are easily identified in town records and even in Martha’s diary, by the title “Doctor.” No local woman can be discovered that way” (Ulrich, 1990, pg.61). Martha was a part of this demoralized group of laborers. Unfortunately for her, “in twentieth-century terms, the ability to prescribe and dispense medicine made Martha a physician, while practical knowledge of gargles, bandages, poultices and clisters, as well as willingness to give extended care, defined her as a nurse” (Ulrich, 1990, pg.58). In her diary she even portrays doctors, not midwives, as inconsequential in a few medical
In the monograph, A Midwife’s Tale, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich wrote about the life of Martha Ballard based on the diary she left behind during the eighteenth century. In the dairy, Martha Ballard talks about her daily life as a midwife. Martha Ballard was one of the midwives during her era that helped with many medical related problems around the community. A Midwife’s Tale provides insight into eighteenth century medicine by showing the importance of a midwife through a firsthand account of Martha Ballard and by indicating the shift of medicine from being underdeveloped into becoming a more developed field.
In Civil War Hospital Sketches, Louisa May Alcott presented her six-week experience as a volunteered nurse during the American Civil War. She gave herself an alias: Nurse Tribulation Periwinkle. Throughout the story, there were three concise “sketches” that portrayed her experience. The first sketch was about her decision to become a nurse, evading other suggestions by her family such as writing a book, teaching, and getting married. The second sketch was about her nursing job and how she took care and treated wounded American soldiers in the hospital. Her last sketch described when she contracted a serious illness from nursing and was forced and brought back home by her father. In chapter four, A Night, John, who was a young blacksmith, a soldier, and one of Periwinkle’s dying patients, affected her the most during her experience as a nurse. Alcott’s diction and imagery about John served to inform her audience’s understanding of the Civil War.
Martha Ballard was a midwife in Hallowell, Maine in the early eighteenth century. She is the author of the diary that inspired A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Martha Ballard was an extremely busy woman with her medical duties and was very serious about being a midwife. Nothing was trivial to Martha she was serious about her work and community. She was an independent woman of her time and valued her autonomy. Her job highlighted how compassionate and caring she was towards her community. She never turned anyone away, and she would help anyone in need regardless of race, social rank, or economic standing. She relied on her connections to the people in the community in many ways. Martha was a pillar of her community because of her
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, it became one of his greatest legacies. In the first line he wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" (U.S. Constitution, paragraph 2). Jefferson wrote these words to give inspiration to future generations in the hopes that they would be able to change what he either would or could not. The word “men” in the Declaration in the early 1700 and 1800’s meant exactly that, but even then it only was true for some men, not all. Women, children, and other segments of the population such as slaves and Native Americans were clearly not included. Jefferson himself was a slave owner and held the belief that women were inferior to men. Though women played no role in the political environment, they were crucial to the development and economic success of the times. The strength, courage and work ethic of pioneer women like Martha Ballard in “A Midwife’s Tale” (Thatcher, 1990) created the very fabric of the community and wove it together so the community could thrive.
We pick up with Caroline Phelps’ Life on March second, 1830. This is an important day in her life, as it is her wedding day. William Phelps, her husband is a rugged frontier fur trader. Caroline’s parents did not approve of William because of his jagged lifestyle. “He (her father) said William was wild and careless and I would have to live like a squaw if I married him.” Throughout the next few years we see some character traits of Caroline. She lives a very demanding lifestyle; her husband is hardly home and is gone for months at a time. Caroline also deals with many hardships with little complaint showing she will do what it takes to get by.
Nicholls, L., & Webb, C. (2006). What makes a good midwife? An integrative review of methodologically-diverse research. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 56(4), 414-429. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.04026.x
A critical point about Anne Frank's diary is that it was written during the years of her adolescence. She struggled with many typical teenage problems- yearning for her own...
The other objects in the room gave me a sense that this is what a wealthier individual’s life was like back then. From the wine glasses, to the Breaking Home Ties painting, to the Gross Clinic which was at a University, to the ornate pieces of furniture. The Gross Clinic’s subject, Dr. Samuel Gross, who was a university professor of trauma surgery at Jefferson medical college during the 1870s, is leading a medical procedure with a team of five doctors that is taking place on the left thigh of a patient (Yeo). During this operation Dr. Gross has a lecture hall full of undergraduates in the gallery witnessing a new technique to treat a bone disease, that Dr. Gross developed himself (Philadelphia Museum of Art). Dr. Gross was a medical doctor prominent in the understanding and exploration in the surgical techniques of his day (Yeo). This procedure is revolutionary because he is removing a sequestrum (the disease was osteomyelitis) as opposed to an amputation of the leg, which was the customary operating treatment at the time (Yeo, Hendricks 57). Dr. Gross takes center stage in the painting with a long black jacket and a scalpel in his hand with blood on his
When the main characters brother becomes sick the doctor believes that he has a “Disturbance of blood. Therefore he needed to be bled. The physician places slimy leeches all over my brother’s body and let them such his blood”(Oppel 49). This was a very common medical practice in the 17th and 18th century, so much that “there was a shortage of leeches in certain European countries due to its rigorous use.” (Leeching in the History--a Review). Throughout the book the parents of the sick child find doctor after doctor to help their child become better, but none of them know what is happening. They finally find a doctor under the name Dr. Murnau. Even though his name is made up, what he discovered and how he identifies the sickness is accurate. In 1665 Robert Hooke discovered the existence of cells using a microscope, which is exactly how Dr. Murnau discovered his
In this chapter Dr. Thomas Percival is introduced. Percival first debuted the term “medical ethics.” Percival himself was an advocate of the classical decorum. He believed in the importance of the truth and emphasized sympathy, equality and patience. Chapters six and seven illustrates medical ethics in America. American doctors in this time were either self-taught or apprenticeship-trained. During these chapters the development of proper schools and education were initiated by the American Medical Association. In addition, the first anesthesia was introduced and debates soon began to spark in the world of medicine. The first concerning the unethical practice of inoculation. Then the discussion of abortion and later the use of anesthesia. Yet, in the very last chapter, Jonsen introduces a series of events which radically transformed the field of
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The author, Elizabeth Brown Pryor, wrote her biography of Clara Barton with the intent to not only tell her life, but to use personal items (diary and letters) of Clara’s found to help fill information of how Clara felt herself about incidents in her life. Her writing style is one that is easy to understand and also one that enables you to actually get pulled into the story of the person. While other biographical books are simply dry facts, this book, with the help of new found documents, allows Pryor to give a modern look on Barton’s life. This book gave a lot of information about Ms. Barton while also opening up new doors to the real Clara Barton that was not always the angel we hear about. Pryor’s admiration for Ms. Barton is clear in her writing, but she doesn’t see her faults as being a bad thing, but rather as a person who used all available means to help her fellow soldiers and friends along in life.
Peterson, M. Jeanne. The Medical Profession in Mid-Victorian London. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: U of California P, 1978.
Uroff, M.D. “The Doctors in ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter.’” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 27.1 (1972): 61-70. JSTOR. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.