Claude Moore Health Sciences Library
University of Virginia Health System

May 20, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Joan Echtenkamp Klein at (434) 924-0052 or [log in to unmask]

"DEAR DOCTOR:" NEW ONLINE EXHIBIT GIVES NEW VOICE TO PATIENTS FROM THE
PAST

http://carmichael.lib.virginia.edu

Charlottesville, VA - Before the Internet and the telephone, patients
could only reach their doctors through written letters.  Thanks to a
collaborative effort between U.Va.'s Claude Moore Health Sciences
Library, and the U.Va. Library's digital teams, the voices of patients
from 19th century Virginia are no longer lost in the past. A new online
exhibit from the Claude Moore Library presents 700 letters from the
patients of Dr. James Carmichael, a Scottish physician whose practice
was based in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  The collection of
correspondence, written between 1819 and 1830 and held in the new Albert
and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, gives a unique view into
the physician-patient relationship. The letters can be seen online in
their original, handwritten form, side by side with a typed version. The
19th-century patients' terms for complaints, diseases, and treatments
have been matched to their 21st-century equivalents. 

The letters are not only descriptive but show familiar emotions that we
would recognize today.  A father in 1820 pleads for his sick daughter,
"Pray send out Dr. Carmichael to me immediately-as I consider her to be
in great danger. Delay not a moment for her life and my happiness depend
on it."

Todd L. Savitt, Professor of Medical Humanities at the Brody School of
Medicine at East Carolina University and noted author on Southern
medical history, said, "There are only a few collections of letters to
antebellum southern physicians.  They're invaluable because they give us
insight into the physician-patient relationship, and tell us about the
role of physicians in the society where they practiced.  U.Va. has given
us a wonderful gift in making the Carmichael collection so readily
available."

Teams from the Claude Moore Library's Historical Collections and
Services and the U.Va. Library's E-Text Center and Rare Materials
Digital Services worked to bring the historic letters to life on the
web.  "One of the more challenging aspects of the project faced by the
Historical Collections team was to read and transcribe the handwriting
of nearly 700 different individuals, who possessed varying degrees of
literacy," stated Joan Echtenkamp Klein, Alvin V. and Nancy Baird
Curator for Historical Collections and project director.  Team members
examined each of the 700 letters and assigned multiple subject terms
reflecting the content of each unique letter or note.  Each side of each
document was scanned at a high degree of resolution to maintain the
highest digital archive standards.

In addition to the correspondence, the web site also includes a photo
essay of the landscape of the Carmichael letters, newspaper articles,
book excerpts, court records, maps, WPA reports, and extensive listings
of "Who's Who" and "Places Mentioned" in the letters, with links to
related sources of information.

Links:

Exhibit web site:

http://carmichael.lib.virginia.edu

Claude Moore Health Sciences Library Historical Collections & Services
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/library/historical/

Claude Moore Health Sciences Library information:
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/library/
 
U.Va. Library E-Text Center:
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/etext

U.Va. Library Rare Materials Digital Services:
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/rmds

U.Va. Library Special Collections: http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/

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