William Holmes Oral History
Dublin Core
Title
William Holmes Oral History
Subject
Physician and patient
Gifts
Walking-sticks
Staffs
Description
William Holmes' story of receiving a hand-made walking stick from a Native American (affiliation non-specified) patient.
Source
William Holmes
History Harvest 2019
Contributor
Anna Rataj
Format
.mp3
Language
English
Type
Sound
Coverage
Champaign, Illinois
Urbana, Illinois
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Duration
00:01:21
Transcription
Anna Rataj: Could you tell me a little bit about your walking stick, please?
William Holmes: Ah, yes, it was given to me by a patient who I had treated and was leaving the area, and he brought that in for me.
Anna Rataj: What kind of emotional weight does it have for you?
William Holmes: It had quite a bit of emotional weight for him. He was thankful for a skin cancer procedure I had done, and he said he made that for me. He had some Native American ancestry, and each of the symbols and things on it had a significance for him. There’s sage at the bottom, and then a feather that was dyed to be an eagle feather, and then different symbols and colors on it.
Anna Rataj: Do you know what specific group he belonged to?
William Holmes: I don’t. He said he was a resident here in Champaign, but I’m not sure what his ancestry was.
Anna Rataj: What does this object say to you about spacial change in Urbana-Champaign?
William Holmes: For me, it just symbolizes a patient-physician relationship. And with treatment, and what physicians do for patients -- and sometimes gratitude is expressed back in different ways, and this is very symbolic for him, and had a lot of meaning for him to create it and give to me.
William Holmes: Ah, yes, it was given to me by a patient who I had treated and was leaving the area, and he brought that in for me.
Anna Rataj: What kind of emotional weight does it have for you?
William Holmes: It had quite a bit of emotional weight for him. He was thankful for a skin cancer procedure I had done, and he said he made that for me. He had some Native American ancestry, and each of the symbols and things on it had a significance for him. There’s sage at the bottom, and then a feather that was dyed to be an eagle feather, and then different symbols and colors on it.
Anna Rataj: Do you know what specific group he belonged to?
William Holmes: I don’t. He said he was a resident here in Champaign, but I’m not sure what his ancestry was.
Anna Rataj: What does this object say to you about spacial change in Urbana-Champaign?
William Holmes: For me, it just symbolizes a patient-physician relationship. And with treatment, and what physicians do for patients -- and sometimes gratitude is expressed back in different ways, and this is very symbolic for him, and had a lot of meaning for him to create it and give to me.
Interviewer
Anna Rataj
Interviewee
William Holmes
Location
MTD City View
Champaign, Illinois
Collection
Citation
“William Holmes Oral History,” Omeka, accessed May 2, 2024, https://historyharvest.web.illinois.edu/omeka/items/show/72.