Personal Writings and Oral History: Physicians

For biographical sources on nurses and physicians see the Guide to American Medical Biography.

In the HOLLIS Catalog several Subject terms refer to personal writings.  Combine topical keywords with  the words: Interviews, diaries, narratives, biography (includes autobiographies):

Examples of Subject Terms

  • Anecdotes
  • Cardiologists
  • Case Reports
  • Case Studies
  • Medicine -- Practice
  • Oncologists
  • Physician and patient
  • Physician-Patient Relations--personal narratives
  • Women physicians -- Biography

Example HOLLIS Searches: 

physician* OR cardiologist OR oncologist
AND
narratives OR sources OR diaries OR correspondence OR archives OR oral OR interviews OR writings

"Physician and patient" OR "Physician-Patient Relations"

Subject contains: heart OR Cardiovascular OR "myocardial infarction"
AND
Subject contains: disease* OR "myocardial infarction"
AND
Subject contains:"Case Reports" OR "Case Studies" OR Anecdotes
 

Personal Narratives, Interviews, and Case Reports

Case reports are descriptions of individual cases.

PubMed (1946- ) covers, usually with abstracts, periodical articles on all areas of medicine. For pre-1946 articles see the Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office. 

In PubMed, search a disease or condition in the main search box. You can narrow by particular Publication Type (Case Report, Interview, Personal Narrative and many others) by  Scroll down to the bottom of the left hand column and hit Additional filters Article Type. A list of Article types opens up.  Choose Case Report, Interview, and/or Personal Narrative and hit Show.  These Article Type now shows up in the short list of article types near the top of the left hand column.  Now hit the Types desired.

For earlier books and articles use the Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office Advanced Search with searches of the form:

(heart OR cardiovascular OR infarction) AND case
AND
1930 OR 1931 [don't use 1930-1931]

Oral History/Interviews

Oral History Online indexes oral history collections, with links to interview-level bibliographic records and to full-text materials.

HistoryMakers: An African American oral video history archive. Searching physician OR doctor OR surgeon yields 63 persons. Some are about rather than by physicians.  The display gives you the portion of the transcript in which your search words occur.

Document Collections

Doctor or Doctress? Explore American history through the eyes of women physicians

Bibliographies

Physician-patient relationships: an annotated bibliography, by M. L. Glasser. NY: Garland Pub., 1991, 91 pp.
HOLLIS Record

General Sources for Diaries and Autobiographies

Some of the references in the books below will be to merely brief mentions of illnesses, but they offer access to earlier sources.

American diaries: an annotated bibliography of published American diaries and journals, by Laura Arksey. 2 v. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, 1983, 1987.
LOCATION: Widener: RR 3623.18.15 (Loker Reading Room, Widener 2nd floor)
Internet Archive full text:  Vol. 1  --  Vol. 2. 
--Arranged chronologically with name (author and subject person), subject, and geographical indexes.  Includes diaries published as periodical articles.
--See Index (vol. 2) under Physicians and surgeons (p 465) and Hospitals (p. 455). Index lists only the entry number for each work: 1850 starts with no. 3202; 1900 with 5367, 1950 with 5813

American autobiography, 1945-1980: a bibliography. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982.
LOCATION: Schlesinger: Ref. 016.92 B85a
LOCATION: Widener: RR 1712.6.4
Internet Archive full text
--Arranged by author, with name and detailed subject index. Subject index includes terms and names(!) not in the entry annotations.
--See index: Physician (330-331)

Through a woman's I: an annotated bibliography of American women's autobiographical writings, 1946-1976, by Patricia K Addis. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1983.
LOCATION: Widener: WID-LC CT3260.Z99 A32 x, 1983
Internet Archive full text
Index: Doctor (p. 549)

The published diaries and letters of American women: an annotated bibliography, by Joyce D. Goodfriend. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall, 1987.
LOCATION: Schlesinger: Ref. 016.92 G651p
LOCATION: Widener: RR 3623.18.18
Internet Archive full text
--Arranged chronologically with name and (broad) subject indexes. Geographic entries under “Locality” in the Subject index.
--Index: Physicians (p. 226)

A bibliography of American autobiographies, by Louis Kaplan. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1961.
LOCATION: Baker Business: Z1224.K3
LOCATION: Schlesinger: Ref. 016.92 K17b
LOCATION: Widener: RR 1712.6
Internet Archive full text  --  Another copy
--Arranged by author, with name/subject index. Subject index contains largely occupations (includes “Immigrants”). Subject entries are repeated under broad geographic categories (e.g., South Atlantic).
--Index: Doctors (p. 336)

A guide to finding additional diaries and autobiographies is available in Finding Biographical Information.

Database

Litmed: Literature Arts Medicine Database includes narratives as well as literary works.