Lessons in Likeness: Portrait Painters in Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley, 1802-1920 : Featuring Works from the Filson Historical Society

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University Press of Kentucky, 2011 - Social Science - 252 pages
The nearly 350 humorous, heartwarming, and sometimes tragic accounts presented in William Lynwood MontellÕs latest book, Tales from Kentucky Doctors, offer an unusual perspective on the culture and tradition of Kentucky health-care practice. From the laughable to the laudable, Tales from Kentucky Doctors present illuminating portraits of doctors and patients, drawing stories from physicians with lifetimes of experience serving Kentucky families. In chapter 2, doctors recall the successes and failures that shaped their early careers. For Dr. Baretta R. Casey of Hazard, becoming a doctor was a difficult journey. Already married and with a child, Casey enrolled in college at age thirty, later completed medical school, and began a successful career as a family practitioner in the 1990s. Though patient visitations and doctorsÕ prescriptions are recorded on account ledgers, personal relationships and memories are not part of medical records. The section ÒPersonal PracticeÓ gives a glimpse of the intimate relationships doctors form with their communities. ÒI doubt that any individual was nearer to the family than the family doctor,Ó Dr. W. L. Tyler says in one story. For many towns, family physicians were heroes. Dr. James S. Brashear relates the challenges of practicing in Central City, a coal mining town, recalling an incident in which he saved the lives of two miners. Handed down to Montell in the oral tradition, the tales presented in this collection represent every part of the state. Personal experiences, humorous anecdotes, and local legends make it a fascinating panorama of Kentucky physicians and of the communities they served.
 

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About the author (2011)

Estill Curtis Pennington has served in curatorial capacities for the Archives of American Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Morris Museum of Art. His publications include William Edward West, 1788--1857, Kentucky Painter; Look Away: Reality and Sentiment in Southern Art; Downriver: Currents of Style in Louisiana Art 1800--1950, A Southern Collection; and Kentucky: The Master Painters from the Frontier Era to the Great Depression.

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