Inventory
 

Dr. Frank E. Wiedemann Collection
Dates: 1872-1974
Accession Numbers: 810705, 20020917A
Donor: Mrs. Frank E. Wiedemann
Description: One records storage box; one card file box:
                            two scrapbooks (Volumes 76 and 77)

Biography 

Frank E. Wiedemann was born June 29, 1872 in Harrisburg, Illinois.  He graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago in 1894 and established a medical practice in Terre Haute. 

Wiedemann believed in continuous medical education.  He did postgraduate work at the Chicago Polyclinic, the New York Polyclinic, the Post Graduate School of Chicago, the Medical Graduate College and Polyclinic in London, England, the New York Post Graduate Medical School, the Philadelphia Polyclinic, the Post Graduate Medical School in Chicago, the Illinois School of Electro-Therapeutics, Harvard Medical School and Tulane University.      

A pioneer in the medical field, Wiedemann was among the first physicians, in 1895, to use a normal saline solution on a patient at Union Hospital.  A year later, Wiedemann and three other physicians performed the first successful cesarean section operation in Indiana.   

Following a visit to Germany where he was amazed by the new X-ray process discovered by physicist Wilhelm Roentgen, Wiedemann returned to the United States and began to work on his own X-ray device.  Several months later, in the summer of 1896,  Wiedemann created the first x-ray machine in the United States using a secondhand storage cell and took one of the first X-ray images in the United States.   

He was one of the first people to suggest the therapeutic value of music. Patients in his waiting room would come in with moods corresponding to the moods played out randomly on a pipe organ elsewhere in the Rose Dispensary where Wiedemann had his offices. According to Wiedemann, “a frolicky tune would set them off while one of solemnity would modify their hilarity.” He presented his findings in a paper titled “Music as a Therapeutic Agent” before the Indiana State Medical Society in 1903. 

Wiedemann maintained offices in the Rose Dispensary building for 63 years and was never absent due to illness.  He saw patients in his office seven days a week from 1894 until about 1953 unless he was traveling. 

Wiedemann traveled throughout his life, visiting Europe in 1900, 1906 and 1913.  Most of his time abroad between 1908 and 1921 was spent in the countries of the Western Hemisphere.  He made two trips around the world but after World War II he traveled mostly in the United States.  The trips were for pleasure but also added to his medical expertise.  He presented lectures on his trips and world tours to the Terre Haute Literary Club and other local organizations. 

Wiedemann was renowned for his generosity.  He gave two X-ray machines and other electrical equipment to Rose Polytechnic Institute (currently Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology).  Several times during his career he forgave en masse the debts of his patients. 

Wiedemann was a professional member of the Vigo County Medical Society, the Aesculapian Society of the Wabash Valley, the Indiana Medical Society and the American Medical Association.  Socially, he was a member of the Terre Haute Literary Club, Knights Templar, the Scottish Rite, Zorah Temple, the Sons of the American Revolution and the Vigo County Historical Society. 

Frank Wiedemann retired from his medical practice in May 1961 just before his 89th birthday in June 1961.  He died on December 24, 1961 and is buried in Highland Lawn Cemetery. 

Content and Scope of Collection

This collection contains biographical materials, photographs, and drafts of Dr. Frank Wiedemann's travel papers and medical papers.  In addition, an unsorted collection of postcards accumulated during a lifetime of world traveling is stored in the back of the box. 

Note:  Dr. Wiedemann's own selection of the best of his papers is preserved in a bound volume in the Special Collections Department: Spc. 818:W

Record Storage Box
Folder 1	Biographical
	Chronology of life	1872, 1961
	Obituary	Dec. 25, l961
	Creed	n.d.
	Cancellation of indebtedness	1954, 1956, 1961
	Clippings and cards	n.d.
	Photographs
	Dr. & Mrs. Wiedemann in China	May 23, l937
	Riverside, Reno at dinner table	n.d.
	Portrait 8x 10 glossy	n.d.
	Several small photos	n.d.
Folder 2	Photos, articles, letters about x-ray apparatus	1894, 1940s
Folder 3	Medical papers	n.d.
	Classification of medicine
	A Study of Elimination
	The Conflict between the Cave Man and the Social Man
	What the Laymen Should Know about the Heart
	Music as a Therapeutic Agent	1903
	Medicine Per Se a Failure
	A Medical View of Christian Science
	Travellers Health in the Sixteenth Century
	What We Should Know at Forty Five
Folder 4	Letter from A.E. Hedback, M.D.	March 30, 1936
	"Medical South America" -- pamphlet	1928
	"Little Glimpses of Medical Africa" --pamphlet	1928
	Comments to Journal of the Indiana Medical Association on automobile safety	n.d.
Folder 5	Travel papers
	The Great Religions of the World	n.d.
	So You Are Going to Travel
	Ten Years Ago and Today
	Women of Many Lands
	Seeing Europe Through the Camera
	My Reaction to Europe
	Palestine
	Letter to J.C. Tranbarger on culture
Folder 6	Travel papers
	As I Saw Russia	n.d.
	Observations of Russia
	Russian Icons
	Observations of Soviet Russia
Folder 7	Travel papers	n.d.
	Glaciers of North America
	Guatemala
	Mexican Bull Fight
	My Impressions of South America
	Hawaiian Islands
	High Lights on New Zealand and Australia
Folder 8	Travel papers
		n.d.
	Ceylon
	Straits Settlements
	Java
	Korea
	Japan
	China
Folder 9	Travel papers
	Africa-Enroute
	Senegal
	Sierra Leona
	St. Helena
	Union South Africa
Folder 10	Script for slides	n.d.
	Panama Canal
	Mexico
	Photographs
	Mexico
Folder 11	Mrs. Frank Wiedemann materials	1947
	Photographs
	Home garden	1956, 1963-1965
	Swope Art Gallery group	1962
	Flo Wiedemann - clippings	1964
	Mrs. Frank Wiedemann - clippings	1974
	"Decorator Showhouse" - clippings	1974
	"Citizen of the Day"	1971
Tape	Mrs. Frank E. Wiedemann "Citizen of   the Day" WAAC Radio	June 11, 1971
Notebooks	Dr. Wiedemann's rough travel notes	n.d.
Card File Box 20020917A
	Postcard collection	various dates
Oversized Volumes
Volume 76	Memorabilia Scrapbook	1896-1956
Volume 77	Memorabilia Scrapbook	1944