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Dr. Wicker speaks about her doctorate of adult education; thinking about Duke since leaving due to a restructuring layoff in 2000; her family background; her interest in becoming a nurse; attending Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing; diploma programs as prevalent at the time she received her education; the Lincoln program being available to African-Americans; the creativity within the Lincoln program since it was underfunded; the camaraderie in the program; Duke's involvement in the Lincoln program; working at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina; working towards her master's degree at North Carolina Memorial Hospital; being a black registered nurse [RN] when most other black nurses were licensed practical nurses [LPNs] and most other RNs were white women; physicians noticing her after the white LPNs because she was black; this being the impetus for her to attain her bachelor's degree in nursing; attaining a master's in nursing supervision; approaching Wilma Minnear [director of nursing services at Duke Hospital] in 1973 for a position; teaching at North Carolina Central University for a year; working at Duke as supervisor of the Outpatient Department; being the first African-American nursing supervisor at the hospital; her deep interest in staff development; supervising nurse managers; expectation that the nurse was the handmaiden to the physician; Dr. Wicker as trying to counter that expectation in those whom she supervised; programs she initiated as supervisor of the Outpatient Department; discovering that she had hired two union plants; supervising in the emergency room; a challenging person she supervised in the emergency room; the emergency room as not her area of expertise; Wilma Minnear asking her to be the supervisor of nursing services for Duke Hospital South; her original hesitation at the offer because of her small children at home; the internship program where interns could work with nurses; overlap at times between nursing services and Duke School of Nursing; the restructuring of hospital administration after Wilma Minnear left; Duke Hospital South as having more black nursing administrators and supervisors than Duke Hospital North; rumors of discontent about nurses at Duke Hospital South, and that discontent being trivial; the retreat about the reorganization of Duke Hospital North and South nursing leadership in Williamsburg, Virginia.; being more dictated to than asked for her opinion at the retreat; being asked to choose an assistant, but being told that her decision was not correct; writing a letter after being told that she could not make this decision; black nurses as not being able to obtain positions; a blue ribbon committee looking into this problem; her letter to the blue ribbon committee; her interactions with the blue ribbon committee; her work in creating the Hospital Career Development program; transitioning into a career development role; her excitement in that program; new administration not valuing the program; her being given a pink slip; her processing being given a pink slip after all her years of contribution to Duke; other contributions she had made to Duke; having no contact with Duke until the invitation to participate in the oral history interview; things she has done since leaving Duke; working on the history of Lincoln Hospital project; that project not being completed; changes in nursing; Brenda Nevidjon; wanting to have a conversation with Dr. Ralph Snyderman before leaving but being denied that opportunity; positives and negatives of Duke culture.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Frances K. Widmann on November 28, 2007 by Jessica Roseberry as part of the Women in Duke Medicine Oral History Exhibit.
Duration: 01:11:53
Frances K. Widmann discusses her background; her parents as physicians; marrying a physician; her mother as a female physician; her own interest in pathology; her work synthesizing the work of others in the "Technical Manual of the American Association of Blood Banks" and "Standards of the American Association of Blood Banks"; the importance to the field of these two volumes; medical school at Case Western Reserve; only small differences in the treatment between her and male medical students; coming to Chapel Hill in 1961 because of the availability of household help for families; being paid less than male members of the Department of Pathology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; coming to Duke in 1971; working at the Durham Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital as director of the blood bank; the relationship between the Durham Veterans Administration Hospital and Duke Hospital; the centralized nature of Durham Veterans Administration Hospital's laboratories as opposed to Duke's laboratories; running a blood bank; the necessity of testing for certain antibodies in the blood; the difference in patient population at the VA Hospital and at Duke Hospital; her residency years; household help; organizing her schedule to be with her family during her residency years; the chair of Duke's Department of Pathology gaining newfound respect for her work during his own illness; other women in the Durham Veterans Administration Hospital; the use of male-centered language in Department of Pathology at times; and the desire for medical culture to allow more freedom for non-work-related activities. The transcription of this interview was made possible by a grant from the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation. Includes 1 master CD, 1 use CD, and 1 transcript.

This oral history was conducted with Dr. Fred A. Crawford on May 22, 2019 by Taylor Patterson as part of the Dr. David Sabiston Oral History Project. Transcript is available.
Duration: 00:49:09
During the interview, Crawford discusses his early life and education, his experience at Duke University and Duke University School of Medicine, working for Dr. Will C. Sealy, memories of Dr. David and Agnes Sabiston, his residency, leaving his residency at Duke to serve in the Army during the Vietnam War, and his career after Duke at the University of Mississippi and the Medical University of South Carolina as a thoracic surgeon.
Digital files include transcript (.DOCX), interview (.MP3), consent form (.PDF), keywords and summary (DOCX), and Bagger files (.TXT).

Frederick and Mary ("Molly") Bernheim speak about their backgrounds, respectively; how they met; their work, respectively, when they were getting their doctorates; time spent together in Germany in 1929; Frederick Bernheim's work at Johns Hopkins; coming to Duke as members of the original faculty; Dr. George Eadie, who recruited Frederick Bernheim; Frederick Bernheim being asked to teach pharmacology when his field had been primarily biochemistry; Frederick Bernheim's work in trying to integrate pharmacology and biology, which was new field at the time; Mary Bernheim's enjoyment of teaching; Dr. William Perlzweig, who recruited her; Dr. Perlzweig's temperament; teaching in the lab; Frederick Bernheim working on tuberculosis (TB); the small departmental budget and no grants to support research in the early 1930s; how World War II affected their work; many of the preclinical faculty staying to teach as opposed to the clinical faculty, who went overseas as doctors; the Bernheims keeping two English children during wartime; the difference between the general feeling in America about World War II and the Vietnam War; teaching people who came back from World War II; the ample supply of grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) when James Shannon was its director; Frederick Bernheim's research; Mary Bernheim's work in and commitment to the field of nutrition; others at Duke in their respective fields who made contributions; Frederick Bernheim on the academic council; other important Duke contributors in the basic sciences; the development of the curriculum; the numbers of graduate students over the years; Dr. Philip Handler and Dr. Eugene Stead; and the overworking of the medical student.

Dr. McCarty speaks about how she came to know Dr. Grace Kerby; Dr. Kerby as her mentor and colleague; Dr. Kerby as a stalwart of Duke's Department of Medicine; others' impressions of Dr. Kerby gathered from Dr. McCarty's own oral research about Kerby; Dr. Kerby's educational background; Dr. Kerby doing clinical trials in the 1950s; Dr. Kerby as director of house staff scheduling in Duke's Department of Medicine; Dr. Kerby's importance to the Department of Medicine; Dr. Kerby's publications; Dr. Kerby's thoroughness; Dr. Kerby's hearing loss in one ear; misunderstandings about Dr. Kerby due to her hearing loss; others' memories of Dr. Kerby (Dr. William Stead, son of Dr. Eugene Stead, and Dr. Ralph Snyderman); Dr. Kerby as wearing a short white intern's coat as opposed to a long physician's coat; Dr. Kerby sharing equipment; Dr. Kerby's background in athletics; misunderstandings about Dr. Kerby due to her reticent nature; misunderstandings about Dr. Kerby due to other causes; Dr. Kerby's enjoyment of life; Dr. Kerby's hobbies; Dr. Kerby having cancer at the end of her life; Dr. Kerby's research; and Dr. Kerby's legacy.

This oral history interview was conducted with Gordon Hammes on April 3, 1995 by Dr. James Gifford. It is included in the Dr. David Sabiston Oral History Project.

Duration: 00:35:00

During the interview, Hammes discusses his background, education, and how he chose the direction of his career; his mentors; his career in biochemistry; his time as Vice Chancellor at Duke; the connection between the Medical Center and University at Duke; the importance of being an editor for scientific journals; the construction of the Medical Sciences Research Building; and his impressions of the Department of Surgery and Dr. David Sabiston. Includes 1 master audiocassette tape and 1 transcript.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Gregory S. Georgiade on February 17, 2022 by Dr. Konstantinos Economopoulos as part of the Dr. David Sabiston Oral History Project.

Duration: 00:42:11

During the interview, Georgiade discusses his background and parents, especially his father, Dr. Nicholas Georgiade; his education; experiences that led him to want to become a surgeon including his undergraduate summer job as a scrub assistant; how he came to Duke for his surgical training; how differently Sabiston treated medical students from the residents, Sabiston's high expectations for residents which included both how to dress and how to conduct yourself appropriately; how Sabiston ran the surgery residency program, which, under Sabiston, was considered one of the best both nationally and internationally; how Sabiston should be recognized for his insight and surgical innovation for his program at Duke; and other memories of Sabiston. Digital files include transcript (DOCX), interview (M4A), and consent form (PDF).

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Harvey J. Cohen on February 24, 2020 by Emily Stewart as part of the Dr. David Sabiston Oral History Project.
Duration: 00:29:50
During the interview, Cohen discusses his educational background and how he became a doctor, his career in medicine, his residency at Duke in the Department of Medicine, his transition onto the faculty at Duke, his time as the Chair of the Department of Medicine, how he became involved in the field of geriatrics, his work in the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, his memories of Sabiston both as a resident and as a Duke Faculty member, Sabiston's support of the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, and the Department of Surgery's involvement in the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. Digital files include transcript (.DOCX), interview (.MP3), and consent form (.PDF).

This oral history interview was conducted with Helen Mikul on October 17, 2022 by Josephine McRobbie as part of the Duke Midwifery Service and Durham Maternal Health Oral History Project, which was funded by The Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation Endowment Fund.

Duration: 00:55:45

During the interview, Mikul discusses her role as a midwife with Duke Midwifery Service, her dedication to working with Spanish-speaking clients, and the uniqueness of midwifery as a healthcare profession. In this interview, Mikul speaks vividly of the skills that Duke Midwifery Service midwives provided to Duke clients, and also shared with their Duke colleagues in the teaching hospital environment. She shares how she and her Duke Midwifery Service colleagues taught students and trainees the strengths of different birthing positions, maneuvers for safe birth during shoulder dystocia, strategies for postpartum care and the delivery of the placenta, as well as approaches to caring for clients experiencing stillbirth or the the loss of a pregnancy. Mikul reflects on how receptive the students were to this information and describes how during her time at Duke, more trainees began encouraging clients to try hands and knees and side-lying positions for birth (as opposed to the medically-standard stirrups position). The themes of this interview include medical training, midwifery, and family planning. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interview with stereo (WAV), interview with mono (MP3), consent form (PDF), an image (JPEG), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Hilda P. Willett on May 21, 2007 by Jessica Roseberry as part of the Women in Duke Medicine Oral History Exhibit
Duration: 01:53:21
Hilda P. Willett discusses her background; her siblings; her parents' emphasis on education; the lack of funding for higher education; scholarship; Georgia State College for Women; Dr. James Stokes's encouragement for further education; other career choices for women (teaching); the lack of finances for graduate school; Dr. David Tillerson (D. T.) Smith (chair of Duke Department of Microbiology); doing tuberculosis research for Dr. Smith; attaining the first PhD in the Department of Microbiology (1949); her faculty position in the department; the advancement of male members of department to full professorship; the resistance by male members of department that she become a full professor; Dr. Smith's protest of this unfair situation; the appointment, promotion, and tenure committee within her department; her own research on the tubercle bacillus; her discovery of why isoniazid worked; the new chairman of department; her small laboratory; her ceasing of research due to wishes of new chair; the directorship of graduate studies for the department; the awareness of lower salaries for women; women in clinical departments aware of this discrepancy; Mary Poston's role in the department; Mary Poston as the only female in the department; Dr. Willett as the only female in the department; name changes to the department; focus changes of the department due to scientific advancements; Dr. Joe Nevins; Mary Poston's clinical laboratory; having more women on main campus than in the medical center; her husband as a private practitioner in the community; her husband's help with the household; hiring help to take care of her children; her husband's practice in Raleigh; her commute; teaching; assigning lectures as course director; her own social strengths and weaknesses; research funded by the National Tuberculosis Association; presenting at conferences; her fear of flying; elaboration on her own research; Dr. Wolfgang Joklik's reliance on her; the character of Dr. Smith; Dr. Norman Conant; her major contributions in research; editorial contributions to editions of "Zinsser's Microbiology"; the largeness of the task of serving as co-editor of "Zinsser's Microbiology"; her parents; working during her college years; and working with graduate students. The transcription of this interview was made possible by a grant from the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation. Includes 2 master CDs, 2 use CDs, and 1 transcript.