Monday, July 25, 2016

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

I love watching television shows and movies that remind me of bygone eras. When I'm learning about a new place or time, I immerse myself in whatever I can find about that topic to help me get the flavor. With that, however, comes the caution not to confuse fiction with fact.

Photo courtesy of imdb.com
A great example of this is Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. As I've written my Nurses of New York series, I wanted to get a feel for medicine in the 1800s, so I watched several episodes back to back. This did help me get the tone I wanted, but I frequently found myself a little bit irritated as the show portrayed things that simply weren't accurate based on information I already had.

1. In the first episode, Dr. Quinn performs some sort of procedure - it's unclear whether it was a c-section or an episiotomy - during a difficult labor. The patient recovers quickly, there's no mention of possible infection or anything they would have done to prevent infection, and we see that woman up and around again shortly. In reality, the risk of infection would have been high, and if the procedure had been a c-section, the odds of her surviving would have been very low. The show was set in 1867, and in 1867, c-sections were hugely risky.

2. In the first couple of episodes, Robert E. and Grace, two African-American characters on the show, are treated just the same as everyone else. Later, the show's writers realized that they'd made a mistake and started adding in some racism and whatnot to make the show more realistic, but that was a huge oversight. The Civil War ended in 1865, just two years previous, and emotions would have been sky high on both sides of the question.

3. In 1867, children were expected to be obedient and respectful. This was simply how they were raised from the cradle. Throughout the series, we see Colleen rolling her eyes and Matthew and Brian doing various different rebellious things, all of which would be common for children today, but back then? Try that one time and you'd be out behind the woodshed with a switch. Writing the children's characters this way is taking modern thoughts and superimposing them on historical characters, and it just doesn't work.

4. Going along with that ... as Dr. Mike and Sully get closer, she confides in Dorothy that she's never been with a man, and Dorothy is shocked. Again, that's putting modern thought into a setting where it doesn't belong. Yes, women and men did sleep together before marriage, but it certainly wasn't as common as it is today, and a woman who did spend time with her beau in that way was considered the dregs of society. A woman of Dr. Mike's social standing would be expected to wait until marriage, and it was odd of Dorothy to be so surprised that she was still a virgin.

Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoy the show a lot and will continue watching the series. I'm just suggesting that as we watch these shows that are set in historical eras but aren't 100% based on history, we keep in mind that not all the details are going to be accurate, and that we don't create pictures in our minds of how things were just from this information alone. 

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Amelia C. Adams is the author of the Kansas Crossroads series, the Nurses of New York series, the Hearts of Nashville series, and a contributor to the American Mail-Order Brides series and Brides of Beckham. She also takes very, very long naps. She believes this is a good idea. You can learn more about her at www.ameliacadams.com.  Click here to download her first novel free.

7 comments:

  1. Excellent post. There is a book out "Television Histories: Shaping Collectice Memory in the Media Age" that delves deeper into this subject. The primary thesis is: we get our history from the mediea, specifically televison. Like you say, people tend to think these shows are correct, and even the regular 'history' shows are. In fact, they give a good starting point, but...a deeper investigation is usually needed. We filter history through our own perceptions and it takes more to really understand. Yes, people are people, but some things change over the years.

    I also appreciated your post as my non-fiction area of study is women doctors in Colorado up to 1900. Guess what, the story the Dr. Quinn was based on really didn't start in Colorado until 1897. The first documented woman to graduate from a medical school didn't arive in Colorado until 1873-4. California started licensing doctors in 1876 (as far as I can tell) and Colorado didn't start licensing until 1881, but both licensed men and women equally. Angela/Doris

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  2. Any writer using history in today's culture is forced to modernize their work, fear. Wife beating was legal in the nineteenth century, and married women all but ceased to exist. And I'd never watch a show depicting a child getting thrashed. Many episodes of DQ were portrayed with accuracy...the irrational fears surrounding Walt Whitman when he visited town , Dr. Quinn attempting intubation...none of want to imagine how bad everybody smelled lol. Thank you for the interesting post.

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  3. I enjoyed this article and had many of the same thoughts as I watched Dr. Quinn. I do know that fiction authors as well as TV scriptwriters can take poetic license with history. I am a scriptwriter and was a history major in college and taught US history in high school for several years. I try to be as accurate as can when I write about history, but sometimes, I just am forced by circumstances in my story that are not easily changed to "adjust" historical accuracy. I try my very best not to, though.

    I actually would like to know some of the books that give the real history about medicine from the 1850's to the 1880's. I have found some on Amazon, but I cannot spend a lot of money now and don't know which couple of them are worth buying as great resource references . I would so appreciate it if you or anyone of your readers would give me the names of your best reference books about the practice of medicine, especially in the West during this time period. Thank you.

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  4. I enjoyed this article and had many of the same thoughts as I watched Dr. Quinn. I do know that fiction authors as well as TV scriptwriters can take poetic license with history. I am a scriptwriter and was a history major in college and taught US history in high school for several years. I try to be as accurate as can when I write about history, but sometimes, I just am forced by circumstances in my story that are not easily changed to "adjust" historical accuracy. I try my very best not to, though.

    I actually would like to know some of the books that give the real history about medicine from the 1850's to the 1880's. I have found some on Amazon, but I cannot spend a lot of money now and don't know which couple of them are worth buying as great resource references . I would so appreciate it if you or anyone of your readers would give me the names of your best reference books about the practice of medicine, especially in the West during this time period. Thank you.

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  5. Connie,
    Google books have some old college graduation and medical society books. There are articles included in some. There are others that I use in my research. If you would like a list you can pm me at angelarainesauthor at gmail dot com. There is also one my Dr. Keith Souter, who has done major research called "The Doctors Bag" that I use when I write. Angela/Doris

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  6. I loved watching DQ back when it was on prime time. Since then, I majored in history in college, and have gone on to write historical romances. I agree heartily about using primary sources or vetted secondary sources to research eras, but it never has to be boring to do so. autobiographies and biographies can be rich with details and entertaining. But, I also love to watch these shows and movies to get a 'feel' for a time period, as seeing the setting or clothing styles, carriage rides, etc, helps me visualize the era as I write. Thanks for the important reminder about researching for accuracy. I enjoyed your article.

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  7. I agree that placing modern mores and customs in a historical work is a big mistake. Besides, it annoys me. Like you, I research thoroughly and dislike seeing someone else skip over research.

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