Diaries and Journals
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Winslow, Randolph, 1852-1937 (surgeon, medical school professor)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Randolph Winslow Collection
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1868 - 1899
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0150, Series 1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The journals begin in 1868 when Winslow was a fifteen and a half year old freshman at Haverford College.  Throughout his four years there his entries contain comments on subjects as wide ranging as college customs, societies, expenses, sports and extra curricular activities, food, weather, clothing, theater and opera, visiting girls, religious meetings, and family activities.  Occasionally news events are noted, such as the defeat of Napoleon III, which place the diaries beyond the personal and within the context of the times.

College class notes also are included, particularly those on medical subjects.  The information presented is characteristic of the period, but contains misconceptions which may seem bizarre to the modern reader, e.g. "cold breath is a sure sign of death."

Medical school notes and patient lists follow in the journal of 1872 1874.  Information is provided on symptoms, tests, diagnoses and treatment for a wide variety of illnesses.  Several case histories are described including one involving a patient of Dr. Winslow's who received incorrectly supplied medication by an "apparently notorious drunkard of an apothecary."

In these and the journals which follow until approximately 1881 patient lists, with some addresses, some diagnoses, and continued notes indicative of further learning, continue to appear.  Nurses' names and addresses, fee charges to patients, expenses, mention of non medical activities (e.g., excursions, parties, cricket games) and extension of medical responsibilities  (e.g., demonstrator at the University, medical witness at court) are included.  Again, external events such as the calling out of the National Guard to suppress the Baltimore and Ohio railroad strike are noted.

Although there are many personal notes in the diaries, Dr. Winslow does not generally mention his emotional reactions to the occurrences which inspire them.  Events such as meeting his future wife and commencing the study and practice of medicine are listed, but the affective expressions are left to the reader's imagination.

The journals after 1881 essentially deal with patients, names, and occasional addresses and diagnoses.  Dr. Winslow's wife is regularly included in his list of obstetrical patients, although not all his children's births are listed.

 In April, 1883, leaving wife and children in Baltimore, Dr. Winslow began a six month trip to Europe, in part to see the sights, but chiefly to attend medical clinics in such subjects as surgery and midwifery.  Purchase of instruments and their costs are included.

The journals continue with patient lists, some addresses and diagnoses. All the diaries from the first have entries for income and expenditures.  While initially Dr. Winslow's income was low and he appeared to have some difficulty in collecting his fees, it rose steadily to the point where his annual income was substantial, and well above the average for the time.  This was helped by the changing nature of his practice: more and more doctors' names are listed as sources for patient referral and surgical and orthopedic diagnoses become increasingly numerous.  A number of these names recur over the years and patients begin to come from a wider geographic area including the surrounding counties and, later, other states.  Physicians sent members of their families as patients, and the practice became increasingly consultative in surgery.  Winslow's further interest in surgery is indicated by a number of case descriptions, and references to journal articles.

Although they are not noted specifically as external events, the first use of the telephone is part of the record of payments for 1888, and in 1910 diagnoses appear for victims of automobile accidents.

By about 1911 Dr. Winslow's income was derived in large part from rents, inheritance, and investments, etc., and decreasingly from patient fees.  His case load began to drop and he saw his final patients in January 1922.

The leather bound books themselves are printed specifically for physician use and contains wide variety of information useful to doctors, e.g., measurements, therapeutic reminders, ligation of arteries, etc.