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Finding Aid for the John Martin Askey, M.D., Papers 1917-1990
413
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Title: John Martin Askey, M.D., Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1917-1990
Collection number: 413
Creator: Askey, John Martin
1899-1991
Extent:
2 document boxes
(1 lin. ft.)
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections
for the Sciences
Los Angeles, California 90095-1490
Abstract: A small collection of papers, mostly from Dr. Askey's
retirement years, which include materials concerning his personal life and
family, and materials on medical topics which continued to have special interest
for him. Dr. Askey was a skilled clinician with extensive professional
publications; he was also a graceful writer, and the enclosed transcription of a
youthful travel diary describing his time in 1925 as a ship's surgeon is most
engaging.
Physical location: SRLF
Language of Material: Collection materials in English
Collection is open for research.
Property rights in the physical objects belong to the UCLA Biomedical
Library. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and
their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds
the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission
to publish if the Biomedical Library does not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], John Martin Askey, M.D., Papers, 413, Louise M.
Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences,
University of California, Los Angeles.
Gift of B & L Rootenberg Rare Books, December, 2009.
As a very young man, John Martin Askey (1899-1991) thought he might want to
be a journalist; but after graduation from high school in Bellingham,
Washington, a short stint as police reporter for a Tacoma newspaper convinced
him otherwise. Instead he decided to follow his older brother Vincent into
medicine. After a year at the College of Puget Sound and three years at the
University of Oregon he entered the University of Pennsylvania School of
Medicine and received his M.D. degree in 1923. He interned at University of
Pennsylvania Hospital, spent four months as a ship's surgeon, then again
followed his older brother to California, where he received his license to
practice medicine in 1925.
Dr. Askey was board certified in Internal Medicine, and specialized in
cardiovascular diseases. In addition to his private practice he joined the
clinical teaching staff at the University of Southern California until 1964,
when he was named Emeritus Clinical Professor of Medicine. Dr. Askey published
widely, and was active in national, state, and regional professional societies.
At various times he served as President or Chairman of the Los Angeles County
Heart Association, the Los Angeles Society of Internal Medicine, and the
California Medical Association General Medicine Section.
These papers came from Dr. Askey's home office and reflect some of the
interests of his retirement years. They include reprints of his professional
journal publications and a few of his more ephemeral published items, such as
letters to the editor. Undoubtedly he authored many more short pieces that are
not here; the correspondence and his personal reminiscences make it clear that
he liked to write, and was never short of comments.
The sixty-some page typed transcription of the diary that documents his
summer-1925 travels on the training ship "Annapolis" is a well-written,
charming, and thoughtful account that reveals a good deal about the young man
who wrote it. Since the original diary is not included, one can not judge how
much of the presentation, if any, has been altered by the mind and experience of
the older man who transcribed it; but there are occasional explicit
retrospections by Dr. Askey in the typed text. He also frequently and vigorously
underlined and commented on the text of the clippings and reprints, on both
medical and cultural topics, that are included in these papers. The bound volume
of medical papers is a rather haphazard compilation: the reprints/tear
sheets/photocopies are in only a rough chronological order; items by other
authors have been inserted, not always for a discernible reason; additional
notes, pages, and comments are sometimes stapled or taped to the text pages. But
as in the correspondence, Dr. Askey's underlining and marginalia add interest to
the gathered materials.
The collection is organized into the following series:
- Series 1. Personal.
- Series 2. Professional.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Naval Medicine -- Personal
Narratives
Physicians -- California -- Los
Angeles -- Archival resources.
Ship physicians -- Archival
resources