UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #673
ENID GILBERT-BARNESS

GILBERT-BARNESS, Enid (1927- )
Director of Pediatric Pathology; Professor of Pathology; Director of Surgical Pathology
At UW: 1970-1993

Interviewed: 2004	
Interviewer: Ann Peckham
Length: 1 hour 20 minutes

Early years and family; Pediatrics residency; Research; Pediatric pathology; Motherhood; University of Wisconsin; Sudden Infant Death Syndrome research; University of South Florida; Service on committees and extracurricular activities; Order of Australia; Teratology; Silent Injustice; Gilbert-Barness Lecture.

First Interview Session (April 28, 2004): Tapes 1-2

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:37	Enid Gilbert-Barness talks about her early years in Sydney, Australia, which included medical school and a rotating internship. She also spent a year in England working in internal medicine and pediatrics.

00:01:50	She talks about her family.

00:03:30	She says that most people went to England for postgraduate training.

00:04:22	She explains how she arranged to have a pediatric residency in Boston and enjoyed the excitement surrounding new techniques of exchange transfusion.

00:06:30	EG-B relates how colleagues had encouraged her to work for Lou Barness at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. She discusses her research, which included taking urine samples from children at a foundling hospital.

00:09:40	She briefly mentions her first marriage and how she later reunited with, and married, Lou Barness.

00:10:40	She had hoped to become a pediatric cardiologist, but it was necessary to be a US citizen in order to gain a fellowship. She reluctantly accepted fellowship training in pediatric pathology, which she carried out in Washington and Texas.

00:12:55	She describes her enduring interest in pediatrics and notes that she was unique in taking her board exams in both pediatrics and pathology.

00:14:12	EG-B balanced work and child-rearing by working part-time for ten years.

00:15:46	She briefly describes her time teaching at the University of West Virginia.

00:16:25	Her husband took a fellowship in molecular biology at the University of Wisconsin. She was hired as a visiting professor by Chairman Henry Pitot and quickly given a tenured professorship. She looks back fondly on her years in Madison and notes specifically her collaboration with Dr. John Opitz in genetics.

00:19:48	EG-B talks about the various interests she developed as a result of her work in pathology. She describes her research on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), her crucial findings about fatal hemoglobin, and her advocacy of means of reducing the incidence of SIDS.

00:24:30	She describes how waterbeds, sheepskin rugs, and rocking beds affect the incidence of SIDS.

00:30:36	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:30:40	Enid Gilbert-Barness continues to talk about her research on SIDS and thinks that many children whose deaths have been attributed to SIDS actually die from suffocation.

00:33:01	She describes Henry Pitot, who was the chairman of the Pathology Department when she came to the University of Wisconsin. She also praises John Opitz and his research in genetics.

00:34:52	EG-B describes her service on the tissue committee and her administrative style as chair of that committee.

00:36:49	She talks about her visiting professorships in several countries, including Australia, China, and Japan. She discusses in detail her research on the heart while in Japan.

00:40:52	She relates her sadness at leaving the University of Wisconsin and talks about her current position as professor of pediatrics, obstetrics, and gynecology at the University of South Florida. She mentions a recent publication on embryo and fetal pathology using ultrasound technology.

00:44:01	EG-B mentions some of her extracurricular activities, which include support for children's organizations, as well as service on the Florida Child Abuse Committee and a death review committee for children and infants.

00:46:10	She describes her teaching responsibilities at the University of South Florida and her fellowship program in pediatric pathology.

00:47:40	She recalls a festschrift published in her honor.

00:49:55	She talks about serving on the Health and Human Services Committee for Vaccine Injury Prevention and the Institute of Medicine review committee. She thinks that infant death from immunization is very rare, if it occurs at all.

00:53:18	Ann Peckham and EG-B talk about some of her honors; she thinks her highest honor was receiving the Order of Australia.

00:57:00	She talks about her Distinguished Medical Alumni Professorship at the University of Wisconsin.

00:58:07	She briefly mentions refusing the chair of pathology.

00:59:27	EG-B mentions her work in teratology, which is the science of malformations caused by environment or drugs.

01:00:14	She just launched a new journal, Fetal and Pediatric Pathology.

01:00:35	End of side. End of tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

01:00:39	Enid Gilbert-Barness discusses her recent book, Silent Injustice, in which she relates the stories of women who had been unjustly accused of killing their infants. She has testified in several high-profile cases of this nature and retells at length the story of one of these women.

01:18:10	EG-B describes the Gilbert-Barness Lecture given for the pediatrics and pathology departments.

01:20:06	End of side. End of tape. End of interview.

END