Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Acquisition Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
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
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
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.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], John Martin Askey, M.D., Papers (Manuscript collection 413). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library
History and Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Acquisition Information
Gift of B & L Rootenberg Rare Books, December, 2009.
Biography
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.
Scope and Content
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 cannot 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.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Naval Medicine -- Personal Narratives
Physicians -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources.
Ship physicians -- Archival resources