Category:

Hattie McDaniel - Wisconsin Women's History

3/4/2016

Actress Hattie McDaniel was born on June 10, 1895 in Wichita, Kansas to a family of entertainers. She was the 13th child of a banjo-playing Baptist minister and gospel singing mother. While attending high school in Denver, Colorado, her singing abilities brought her work in minstrel shows and eventually found her performing with a vaudeville troupe for five years.

Hattie McDaniel, Singer and Actress 1895-1952

Hattie McDaniel and James Cagney in 1943 film

In 1925, Hattie was invited to perform on Denver's radio station which gave her the distinction of being the first African American woman to sing on the radio in the U.S. Ms. McDaniel continued the vaudeville circuit and landed in Milwaukee when the slow down of the Great Depression occurred. She was working as a ladies' room attendant at Sam Pick's when she audition with the song, "St. Louis Blues." In 1929, McDaniel found a steady job as a vocalist at the club and never went back to the maid job. Two years later, Hattie moved to Los Angeles after hearing about work available there on the radio. While she was able to pick up some radio work, at times she had to supplement her income by working at odd jobs.

Hattie McDaniel accepting her Oscar Award

In 1931, she landed her first film role as an extra in a Hollywood musical. Hattie's first major on-screen break came in 1934 singing a duet with Will Rogers in Judge Priest. The following year Ms. McDaniel landed a role opposite Shirley Temple in The Little Colonel. This part brought her to the attention of major Hollywood directors and a stead stream of offers followed. The highlight of her entertainment career came in 1939 with Hattie playing the role of Mammy, the house servant in Gone with the Wind. This role won her the first Oscar ever given to an African American in 1940. Hattie McDaniel unfortunately lost a battle to breast cancer after starting a new career in television as a maid on The Beulah Show. She died on October 26, 1952.

"I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry."
- Hattie McDaniel, During Her Oscar Acceptance Speech

Museum Collection: Convenience Kit

1/11/2016

At first glance this little book may appear to be a simple book of matches, but when you open it up you realize that it contains a styptic kit in case “the gentleman” should cut himself while shaving and a hosiery mending kit “for the lady”.

Also, it looks like a few of the “matchsticks” to prevent your stockings from running were used, since there’s only three left!

By Kayla Sutherland
Associate, Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear

Museum Collection: Favorite Parlor Stove

12/14/2015

Engraved Stove-Box Detail of Favorite Model No. 514

This parlor stove's body is nickel-plated cast iron. The windows are Isinglass, a thin sheet of mica which can withstand up to 1650 degrees Fahrenheit, and the (not original) decorative top or finial is copper. Typical of the Victorian Era, the stove's design simulates castle or Gothic church architecture. Before the introduction of central heating, a stove such as this or a fueled cooking range, would have been the only heat source in the house. Cold mornings often found children running from their beds to the stove to dress in its warmth.

Ornamental Design

Replacement Finial

Coffee Pot Warming Shelf

Tin Advertisement Sign of the Favorite Plant

This coal-burning model was manufactured in 1895 by the Favorite Stove Works of Piqua, Ohio and cost around $25. Opened in 1880, the Favorite Stove Works produced over 50,000 cooking ranges and parlor stoves each year. The slow down during the Great Depression, changing technology and the death of their owner, Stanhope Boal, led to the downfall of the business. The company closed up shop for good in 1958.

By Joel Willems,
Curator, Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear

U.S. President: Warren G. Harding

11/1/2015

Warren Harding as a Child, Center

In the spring of 1882, Harding graduated from Ohio Central College at just 17 years old. After graduating, Harding returned to Marion and purchased the Marion Daily Star. He, with the help of Florence, turned the paper around and made it one of the most popular in the country.

In 1899, Harding won a seat on the Ohio State Senate and his political career began. For the next several years, Harding remained active in both local and state politics. Harding was chosen to give the nomination speech for President Taft at the Republican National Convention in 1912. The exposure given to him at the convention allowed him to run for U.S. Senator. Harding won the race and served until his inauguration in 1921.

During the summer of 1920, Harding began to campaign in earnest. The campaign was run in a very modern fashion, with print ads, sound clips, news reels, anti-Democrat literature and celebrities all being used in an attempt to win voters. On November 2nd, 1920, Harding won the election with 60% of the popular vote and 404 electoral votes.

"Return To Normalcy" - 1920 Campaign Slogan

29th U.S. President Warren G. Harding

In June of 1921, President Harding signed the General Accounting Act, a piece of legislation that would shape federal finances for many decades to come. The bill called for the President to submit an annual federal budget to Congress, to help control and minimize government spending. Additionally, the passing of the General Accounting Act created the Bureau of the Budget, a government agency that reviewed spending requests from the various governmental departments. The Bureau was then supposed to advise the President during the drafting of the annual budget. Harding appointed Charles Dawes as the first director of the Bureau of the Budget, and within his first two years, he slashed government spending by half. Dawes would later go on to be Vice President under President Coolidge.

At the same time, Harding was making budget cuts in various other areas to make good on his campaign slogan, "Less government in business and more business in government." Over the course of his Presidency, tax rates were decreased across the board, and these slashes were felt by every income group. Even with the tax reductions, the Federal debt was reduced by one third in the 1920s, mostly due to policies started by Harding.

The Little Green House on K Street

As the newly elected President Harding was entering the White House, World War I was drawing to a close. After his inauguration, Harding set out to surround himself with the most capable minds in the country. Four our new President, this largely meant filling his cabinet positions with his friends and associates from Marion, Ohio. Many men relocated their families to the Washington D.C. area, and the new clan, who would come to be known as the "Ohio Gang", set up their headquarters in a house in the city that would eventually be known as "The Little Green House on K Street."

The Harding administration had many scandals brewing beneath the surface, though few of them came to light before the President passed away in August of 1923. Harding's biggest challenge by far was keeping the Ohio gang under control during his time in office. Unfortunately for him, many of the gang members were able to sweep their illicit activity under the rug. While he may have been dimly aware of the trouble his friends were causing, he was kept out of the loop for the most part, making it nearly impossible to put a stop to it. After Harding's death, many of his friends were sent to prison for the various crimes they committed while Harding was in office.

President and First Lady

Florence Kling was born in Marion, Ohio on August 15th, 1860. As a girl, she hoped to become a pianist and took piano lessons for many years. When she was 19, she eloped with Henry DeWolfe and they had a son, Marshall Eugene DeWolfe. Six years later, the couple quietly filed for divorce. Free of her first husband, Florence began to pursue Warren Harding. While Florence and Warren were courting, he began to refer to her lovingly as "the duchess," because she was so poised and driven. In July of 1891, Florence and Warren were married. Over the course of the next few years, Florence worked at their newspaper, and with her help it grew even more popular.

While Harding was running for office, "the Duchess" was very involved in his campaign, moreso than any other First Lady up to that point. After he was elected, Florence worked to make the country a more welcoming place for war veterans to come home to. The White House had been closed to the public during the Wilson Administration, and the First Lady opened it again, and restarted the annual Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn.

Warren Harding, a Republican from Ohio, served as President from 1921 to 1923. Harding viewed the Presidency as a largely ceremonial role, and advocated for keeping the government out of businesses. He was an early proponent of civil rights.

President Harding with Ohio Gang members

President Harding was quite scandalous in his own right. He was heavily opposed to Prohibition, a fact he made clear by continuing to serve whiskey and various other liquors in the White House. The First Lady was in on the fun as well, and could frequently be seen mixing drinks for guests while they gambled with her husband. It was not uncommon for the couple and their guests to stay up late into the night playing high stakes poker, smoking cigars and sipping whiskey.

Lena Tomaszek,
Museum Intern, University of Minnesota Undergrad

This panel is part of our 2014 exhibit on U.S. Presidents Between the World Wars. For educational purposes, we have made the document available as a pdf. -->

Museum Collection: Glockengasse Eau de Cologne

10/5/2015

While cataloging some artifacts in the collection, we came across this wonderful bottle of Glockengasse No. 4711.

Here are some interesting facts from the cologne's wikipedia page and their website:

This scent has been produced in Cologne, Germany since 1799, so it can call itself an Eau de Cologne quite literally as a geographical reference
Bottles were given to members of the German Navy who served aboard U-boats in an attempt to make the submarines smell better. It didn’t work, since they kept bringing the cologne home and giving it away as gifts.
Their bottle has remained virtually unchanged for 195 years.
President John F. Kennedy was supposed to have worn it.
It has a lovely refreshing citrus scent.

Here is some other interesting facts about the bottle that we have here at the Chudnow Museum:

It smells a lot like gin.
We’re pretty sure it’s full of gin.
But it’s very pretty.

By Kayla Sutherland,
Associate, Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear

Museum Collection: Jiffy-Way Egg Scale

9/28/2015

This is an item in the Chudnow Museum’s collections. It’s a “Jiffy-Way” egg scale, manufactured by Cyclone. To weigh your egg, you put it on the small cup on the right, and the arrow on the left would tell you whether your egg could be considered small, medium, large, or extra large. This particular model was described by one blog as the Numbus 2000 of egg scales, which is a pretty big deal.

This book on North American egg scales is unfortunately out of print, but its cover does give us some insight into the purpose of these egg scales, and why they can be found in so many auction listings and antique stores.

Our “Jiffy-Way” egg scale probably would have been used by a family that owned a small number of chickens and wanted to make a little extra cash. It has a patent from 1940, so it was most likely used during World War II.

By Kayla Sutherland,
Associate, Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear

U.S. President: Herbert Hoover

8/10/2015

Young Herbert Hoover

In 1895, Hoover graduated from Stanford University with a degree in geology. He and his classmates were the first class to graduate from the newly formed school. After graduation, Hoover took a job with Bewick, Moreing & Company, a mining company based in Australia.

When World War I began in 1914, Hoover left the mining business and began working with the relief efforts in various European countries to aid war victims. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Hoover was appointed head of the U.S. Food Administration. Through creative marketing, he was able to reduce the amount of meat and wheat that was being eaten by the American public so it could be sent overseas to the soldiers.

When President Harding was elected in 1921, he appointed Hoover Secretary of Commerce. In 1927, President Coolidge announced that he would not be seeking re-election, and party leaders began to look to Hoover as the leading Republican candidate. Thanks to his already strong reputation across the country, Hoover easily won the election. On November 6, 1928, Herbert Hoover became president, receiving 58% of the popular vote and 444 electoral votes.

"Who But Hoover" - 1928 Campaign Slogan

31st U.S. President Herbert Hoover

When the stock market crashed in October of 1929, President Hoover took the first in what would become a never ending series of steps in an effort set the economy right. He called factories and businesses to advocate against layoffs and wage cuts, and started several public works projects to employ some of those who had been laid off. It was thanks to these efforts that Hoover Dam was constructed.

He fought for laws that would keep workers safe and income at a livable level. As a last ditch effort before leaving office, the Hoover Administration crafted the Emergency Relief and Construction Act. The bill allowed more money for public works projects and created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, an institution that provided government backed loans to banks, farmers and railroad companies.

In addition to these relief efforts, Hoover also called for an in-depth investigation into the workings of the stock exchange, to ensure nothing like this ever happened again. Many of the programs Hoover started laid the groundwork and provided the inspiration for Roosevelt’s New Deal a few years later.

Blowing Soil of Drought-Stricken Great Plains

Just eight months after President Hoover entered office, the American economy saw a downturn like nothing else ever experienced. Beginning with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, the economy spiraled downward rapidly. Though Hoover tried many different tactics to improve the economy and quality of life for American citizens, none of them were effective enough to enact long-lasting change.

The President was against submitting budgets that were unbalanced, and he was unwilling to raise the country’s deficit to fund welfare programs, so despite public outcry for more federal assistance, little was given. Shanty towns called “Hoovervilles” began to sprout up across the country, with thousands of Americans losing their homes each year.

To make matters worse, the 1930s also brought an extreme drought to the Midwest, which made farming nearly impossible. Fields lay empty and the soil dried out rapidly, effectively creating a dust bowl in the middle of the country. Thousands of people were forced to relocate as their farms became less and less profitable. President Hoover did little to aid these people, and his public approval fell rapidly across the country.

First Lady, Lou Hoover

Lou Henry Hoover was born on March 29, 1874, in Waterloo, Iowa. As a child and teenager, she enjoyed camping and traveling with her father, who taught her to ride horses and hunt. In 1894, she enrolled at Stanford University as a geology major, where she met Herbert Hoover. She remained at Stanford when Hoover graduated to finish her degree, and graduated in 1898. On February 10, 1899, the two were married at her parent’s house in Monterey, California. The day after their marriage, the couple set sail for China, where they lived for several years.

When they, along with their two sons, moved back to the United States, Lou became involved with the Girl Scouts of America, serving as president of the organization from 1922 to 1925, and again after she left the White House from 1935 to 1937. As First Lady, Lou advocated for volunteerism like her husband, and continued her work with the Girl Scouts of America. She was also the first First Lady to be broadcast on the radio on a regular basis, appearing on several radio shows each week.

Herbert Hoover, a Republican from Iowa, was President from 1929-1933. Hoover believed that the government was filled with inefficiency, and he worked to change this during his time in office. He also placed great value on volunteer work and the power of the individual to create change.

Hoovers on a Boat in China

When Lou Hoover graduated from Stanford, Herbert was in Australia working the mines. Around the time of her graduation, Hoover was offered a promotion that would relocate him to China. That very day, he sent Lou a telegram asking for her hand in marriage. She wired back her acceptance almost immediately. While the two were living in China, they learned to speak Chinese, and they frequently conversed in Chinese rather than English while living in the White House.

By Lena Tomaszek,
Museum Intern, University Minnesota Undergrad

This panel is part of our 2014 exhibit on U.S. Presidents Between the World Wars. For educational purposes, we have made the document available as a pdf. -->

U.S. President: John Calvin Coolidge

7/3/2015

John C. Coolidge as a Young Boy

Calvin Coolidge graduated from Amherst College in 1895, and in 1898 he opened his own law firm. For the next 10 years, Coolidge practiced law and dabbled in local politics, holding various positions over the years. In 1906, Coolidge was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he served for six years before being elected to the Massachusetts State Senate. In 1919, he was elected governor of Massachusetts.

At the Republican National Convention in 1920, Coolidge was nominated to run alongside Harding as the candidate for Vice President. While in office, Coolidge was an active Vice President and was the first to attend Cabinet meetings with the President. President Harding died on August 2, 1923 and Coolidge was sworn in mere hours later. For the remainder of Harding's term, Coolidge did little to change the Harding administration or the policies they were backing. He believed that the people had elected Harding, and they wanted Harding's people and policies. Coolidge opted to run for re-election in 1924, and on November 4th, 1924, he won the election with 54% of the popular voted and 382 electoral votes.

"Keep Cool and Keep Coolidge" - 1924 Campaign Slogan

30th U.S. President Calvin Coolidge

While Coolidge was in office, the middle class was growing and most people were experiencing a sense of prosperity and growth during the period known as the "Roaring Twenties." However, Native Americans were not experiencing the same growth and Coolidge saw a problem with this. He signed the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, which granted citizenship to all American Indians and allowed them to keep their tribal lands. Prior to the Indian Citizenship Act, an American Indian was not considered a U.S. citizen unless they sought citizenship. When the law took effect, 125,000 American Indians became legal U.S. citizens.

Coolidge also formed the Committee of One Hundred, which was designed to examine and improve American Indian reservations and all related federal programs. The Committee discoved that conditions on reservations and the quality of federal programs wer lacking, and wrote the Meriam Report to inform Coolidge of their findings. Coolidge then began working on steps to improve the situation. When he left office in 1929, he passed the project on to President Hoover, who continued Coolidge's work resulting in improvements to healthcare and education on American Indian reservations.

Great Mississippi Flood of 1927

The Great Mississippi Flood hit the Gulf Coast in 1927, submerging 27,000 square miles of land along the river and killing 246 people. It is considered the worst natural disaster to hit the Gulf Coast, second only to Hurricane Katrina. Some tributaries set record-high water levels that have yet to be broken.

Coolidge was slow to provide government support or relief. He felt that visiting the flooded regions would be a waste of time and Federal dollars, as he could not do anything to stop the flooding. He did not want the Federal government to be saddled with the cost of flood control, and as a firm supporter of small government, he believed that property owners should carry most of the financial burden. On the other hand, Congress wanted to see legislation that would give the Federal government control of managing floods and the areas impacted by them.

Eventually, Congress drafted the Flood Control Act of 1928, which authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a system of levees to control flooding and construct channels to manage excess water and prevent future flooding. While Coolidge was privately opposed to the bill and refused to take credit for its drafting or effectiveness, he did sign it into law on May 15, 1928.

Grace Coolidge

Grace Anna Goodhue was born on January 3, 1879 in Burlington, Vermont. She attended the University of Vermont, graduating in 1902. While at school, she founded a chapter of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. After graduation, Grace took a job as a teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf, where she taught lip reading.

In 1903, Grace and Coolidge met outside the boarding house where she was staying, and by October of 1905, the two were married. During Coolidge's rise to the White House, Grace attended various political and social events, using her naturally chatty and charming nature to help her husband climb the ranks. After Coolidge was elected, she proved to be quite the hostess, planning many events over the course of her husband's Presidency. Many say that the two were a perfect pair for Washington. Grace was social and outgoing while her husband was quiet and reserved, and they balanced each other quite well. When Calvin passed away in 1933, Grace went back to her work with the deaf, and also did volunteer work for the Red Cross.

Calvin Coolidge, a Republican from Massachusetts, was President from 1923-1919. Coolidge believed in small government and reduced the size of many programs during his Presidency. He was also a supporter of citizenship and increased rights for Native Americans.

The Coolidges Attend a Garden Party

President Coolidge was a quiet man by nature, preferring silence to conversation. This earned him the nickname, "Silent Cal," a name that stuck with him long after leaving office. His wife, Grace, was quiet the opposite. Being a devoted husband, Coolidge frequently attend various social gatherings with his wife. While she stood beside him talking with guests, Silent Cal would just smile. As his time in office continued, people began to turn his silence into a bit of a game, placing bets on how many words they could get out of him in a visit.

Lena Tomaszek,
Museum Intern, University of Minnesota Undergrad

This panel is part of our 2014 exhibit on U.S. Presidents Between the World Wars. For educational purposes, we have made the document available as a pdf. -->

U.S. President: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

4/6/2015

Roosevelt graduated from Harvard College in 1903 with an A.B. in history. After graduation, he went on to Columbia Law School and passed the bar in 1907. Shortly after this, he began practicing corporate law with a Wall Street law firm.

In 1910, Roosevelt ran as a Democrat in the New York State Senate race. While in office, Roosevelt began to introduce many progressive ideas and fought back against party bosses. He was also very vocal about his support for President Wilson, which landed him a job as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In 1914, he decided to run for U.S. Senate, but lost because he did not have the backing of a party boss.

At the Democratic National Convention of 1920, Roosevelt was nominated as the running mate for James M. Cox, but the pair was defeated by Harding and Coolidge in the election. He decided to run for governor in 1928, and won reelection in 1930. In 1932, he received the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention and on November 8, 1932, Roosevelt won the election with 57% of the popular vote and 472 electoral votes.

Happy Days Are Here Again - 1932 Campaign Slogan

President Roosevelt Signing the Social Security Act

While campaigning for his first term, Roosevelt formulated a plan to pull the country out of the Great Depression in three steps: relief, recovery, and finally, reform. He began by restoring faith in the banking system, which people had all but stopped using as they were afraid any money they deposited would disappear. He then expanded and improved many of the programs initiated by Hoover.

The job market was in shambles, with an unemployment rate of 24.1% when Roosevelt was inaugurated. He knew the country needed jobs to get back to spending and stimulate the economy, so he created the Civilian Conservation Corps, or the CCC. The CCC was a program that hired local men to work on construction projects in their area. The workers did everything from build parks to plant trees.

In April of 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, which required Americans to sell any gold they had to the US Treasury in an effort to combat the inflation that was controlling the economy. As his first term continued, Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a program similar to the CCC. The WPA also had a branch for musicians, writers and artists. By the early 1940s, the United States was pulling out of the depression and heading into World War II.

31st U.S. President Roosevelt at Warm Springs

In 1921, the Roosevelt family was vacationing in Canada when Roosevelt contracted polio. The disease left him permanently disabled from the waist down. He considered halting his political career at this time, but with some persuasion from Eleanor he changed his mind. From this point on, it was a constant struggle to hide the extent of his illness from the American people.

Roosevelt was concerned that if the public knew how paralyzed he was, they would fear for his health and he would lose elections. From there on out, public appearances were carefully planned so that the president would never have to walk or stand upright without someone there to support him, usually one of his sons. Roosevelt ordered custom braces for his legs and hips and taught himself how to stand again. Over time he also learned to walk short distances with a cane. While he was unable to hide his illness, he was able to convince the people that he was getting better.

Privately, he used a wheelchair, though he was careful never to be seen in it. Only two photos from the time show Roosevelt in his chair. Over the course of his four terms, his health slowly declined, though this was kept from the people. In April of 1945, Roosevelt died, and the country was left grieving and in shock.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in Wedding Dress

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884 in New York, New York. Her early years were spent with her parents and brothers, Elliot and Gracie. Her mother passed away in 1892 and Eleanor was sent to live with her grandmother. The family arranged for Eleanor to have private tutors until she was 15, when she was sent to Allenswood Academy for finishing school.

In 1902, her grandmother brought her back to New York. One day while riding the train back to her grandmother’s home, she ran into Franklin D. Roosevelt. The two had met previously, as they were distantly related cousins. A romance developed and by November 1903, the pair was engaged. They were married on March 17, 1905.

When Roosevelt was elected president, Eleanor transformed the role of first lady. Prior to Franklin’s election, the role of first lady was essentially to support the president and serve guests of the White House. Rather than fade into the shadows of her husband, she used his office to her advantage, fighting for issues about which she was passionate. She gave countless speeches and public appearance during his time in office.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat from New York, was President from 1933 to 1945. Roosevelt believed that the government should get involved and help people when the situation called for it, and he implemented several progressive policies to help end the Great Depression.

Sarah, Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt

Roosevelt was the only U.S. President to serve more than two terms. When he was elected in 1933, the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression, and the public was thirsty for change. He enacted several programs and many Americans felt the grip of poverty loosen over the next several years. As they became happier, public approval for the president soared, and with World War II on the horizon, Roosevelt opted to continue running for as long as the people would elect him. After his death, Congress passed the 22nd Amendment in 1947, which legally limited all presidents to serving only two terms.

Lena Tomaszek,
Museum Intern, University of Minnesota Undergrad

This panel is part of our 2014 exhibit on U.S. Presidents Between the World Wars. For educational purposes, we have made the document available as a pdf. -->

Museum Collection: The Family Doctor Comes Into His Own

2/20/2015

Augusta & Simon Hart, Jennie & Henry Grafman

This replica painting is on velvet fabric and has been framed and had small repairs done by our curator, Joel Willems. It originally belonged to the Hart family who had a German history of being doctors, midwifes and care-givers. It most likely made it's way to Milwaukee via Simon Hart who had emigrated to England from Berlin and stayed for a few years before continuing on to America. Future members of the Hart and Chudnow families have also become doctors.

From a newspaper article in late 1947 (inset):

It was during the reign of Queen Victoria that a simple forester's cottage near Balmoral castle, north Scotland, became the setting for a human drama that will live forever in this painting, "The Doctor." A favorite servant of the queen lived in this cottage with her husband and their only child. Upon hearing that the child was seriously ill, the queen wired to London for her personal physician, Sir James Clark. Sir James came by special train and remained in constant attendance upon the child until the crisis was past. The child recovered. In 1891, Queen Victoria command Sir Luke Fildes to place the scene on canvas in commemoration of the faithful devotion of the physician.

Belatedly, the family doctor is being formally honored by his professional colleagues. The American Medical association has picked "the family doctor of the year" and bestowed on him a gold medal and a fitting citation.
It is probably more than a coincidence that the first family doctor to be so honored was also a country doctor, who had ministered to the ill in a sparsely populated, rugged and isolated mountain community in Colorado for 21 years. It is under such circumstances that the family doctor must be at his valiant, untiring, resourceful and unselfish best. It was of such a doctor that Walter B. Pitkin remarked:
"A country doctor needs more brains to do his work passably than the 50 greatest industrialists in the world require."
But the family doctor, for all his responsibilities, has gradually been relegated to the position of the Cinderella in his professional family. The specialists, the research men, the teachers and the consultants have become the glamor [sic] boys. They have reaped the lion's share of honors and publicity and the pretty scrolls in Latin and gold seals to decorate their office walls. The specialists have taken the cream of the financial rewards, too.
The family doctor has been left with the drudgery, the routine, the minimum and uncertain income. The undying loyalty and respect of his patients has been about the highest compensation to which he could aspire.
Now, once a year at least, a family doctor is to enjoy the professional attention and acclaim for a fleeting moment. A news dispatch says that the American Medical association has instituted this annual reward to help "restore the family doctor to his traditional position in American life."
The good family doctor, the kind who was pictured in Sir Luke Fildes' famous painting (shown above) and the kind that most of us remember from childhood days, deserves this recognition and much more. With better recognition and much more. With better recognition of its importance, the role of the family doctor - the family friend and mentor - may prove more attractive to the bright and ambitious young graduates of our medical schools.1

Archer Chester Sudan, M.D.

As mentioned in the above newspaper article, the first American Medical Association "Family Doctor of the Year" award was given in late 1947 to Archer Chester Sudan, M.D. of Kremmling, Colorado. For 21 years he was the only doctor in the mountainous county of nearly 2000 square miles. 2

1. The top newspaper articlee has been pasted in a Chudnow Family photo album without a date or newspaper reference.
2."Doctoring in Middle Park from 1927 to 1947," http://www.skyhidailynews.com/article/20090119/NEWS/901199972

By Joel Willems,
Curator, Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear

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Hattie McDaniel - Wisconsin Women's History

Museum Collection: Convenience Kit

Museum Collection: Favorite Parlor Stove

U.S. President: Warren G. Harding

Museum Collection: Glockengasse Eau de Cologne

Museum Collection: Jiffy-Way Egg Scale

U.S. President: Herbert Hoover

U.S. President: John Calvin Coolidge

U.S. President: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Museum Collection: The Family Doctor Comes Into His Own

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