UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #589
BENNETT, E. MAXINE

BENNETT, E. Maxine (1915-2008)
Professor, Department of Medicine
At UW: 1953-1978

Interviewed:	2002	
Interviewer:	Ann Peckham
Length:	42 minutes
Series:		Women in Science and Engineering

Childhood; Schooling; Internship at Madison General Hospital; Dr. Margaret Prouty; Hiring by Dean William S. Middleton; Triological Society; Women on Medical School faculty; Martha Peterson; Retirement activities

First Interview Session (July 12, 2002): Tape 1

Time	Keywords
00:00:00	Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction

00:00:25	[Begin Tape 1/Side 1] MB was born in Beaver City, Nebraska, but her family moved to Cambridge, Nebraska where she grew up.  She discusses her parents and grandparents, who were early settlers. MB’s mother attended school through the third grade.  Her father graduated from high school in Cambridge in 1900.

00:03:18	MB was always encouraged to pursue her interests.  She did not know anyone in medicine and did not meet a female physician until she attended medical school.

00:04:01	Following high school, MB enrolled in Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska.  She enjoyed college and graduated in 1936.  Still too young to attend medical school, MB taught for two years in Ainsley, Nebraska.

00:06:36	She then entered medical school at the University of Nebraska.  Two other women were enrolled in her class. After graduating from medical school, MB came to Madison and served her internship at Madison General Hospital.  There were three other female interns in Madison General at the time.  It was while serving her internship that MB became acquainted with Dr. Wellwood Nesbit, an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor.  She worked with Dr. Nesbit for seven years and frequently assisted him in surgery.

00:09:25	In 1949 she took her American Boards in New York City.  About the time she learned she had passed her Boards, she and Dr. Margaret Prouty traveled to Switzerland to climb mountains.  They climbed the Matterhorn, in addition to other mountains in Switzerland and elsewhere.

00:12:41	After passing her Boards, Dr. H. Kent Tenney steered MB to the Bureau of Public Education, where she served as Medical Director in the Bureau for Handicapped Children.

00:13:21	In 1953, after three years at the Bureau, she was offered a full-time job as associate professor on the faculty of the UW Medical School.  Dr. William S. Middleton was dean and was extremely kind.  Eventually MB had a program approved for residency training.  She also was appointed chair of Ear, Nose and Throat at University Hospital for a period of time.  She talks about some of the first residents in the program.  MB taught a great deal and received a Junior Teaching Award.

00:15:37	MB notes that the entire time she was with UW she never had a woman doctor apply for a residency.  There were not that many woman physicians around and none were interested in Ear, Nose and Throat.  Among the men she trained was Dr. James H. Brandenburg.  MB subsequently helped get him a job in the Department of Surgery.  He eventually replaced her after she retired in 1978.

00:17:07	Going back to her early training, MB notes that there were not many places that trained Ear, Nose and Throat doctors.  Before Brandenburg was hired, the staff in Ear, Nose and Throat consisted primarily of clinical people.  MB discusses some of those people.

00:17:51	MB said there were initially no private patients.  She was paid a salary of $6,000 for her services.  Private patients were first admitted at the time the Department of Surgery decided they would have surgical associates.  MB was the only woman in the Department of Surgery because ObGyn was separate.

00:19:30	Because she was a woman, MB was not allowed in the doctor’s dressing room.  She instead used the nurses’ dressing room, which worked well.

00:20:15	MB discusses the Triological Society, for which she was approved for membership in 1967.  She believes she was the first female member.  Membership was limited to about 600.  She discusses some of her work for the Society.

00:22:48	When MB first joined the UW faculty, her office at Wisconsin General Hospital was located on the fourth floor of the hospital.  She discusses the relatively small space given to Ear, Nose and Throat.  Ruth Parkinson served as nurse for both the Eye Clinic and the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic.  Ear, Nose and Throat eventually was moved to Bradley Hospital.  She describes the set-up at Bradley, which was a great improvement.  When it was announced that they would move to the new hospital complex, MB was not interested and decided to retire.  This was in 1978. There were few women on the hospital faculty.  Besides MB, there was Helen A. Dickey in Internal Medicine, Madeline Thornton in ObGyn and Betty J. Bamforth in anesthesia.

00:26:26	MB discusses contributions she has made to the Ear, Nose and Throat program. MB said she did not serve on any faculty committees that she could recall.  In the community, MB and Dr. Prouty were both members of the Altrusa Club, through which they met many women in the community.

00:27:47	MB mentions Dr. Middleton, who served as dean.  She also notes that she was on the committee in the Department of Surgery that went to see President Conrad Elvehjem during the John Z. Bowers controversy.

00:28:39	MB talks about winning the Bedpan Award, which was the Junior Teaching Award.

00:29:10	MB talks about her post-retirement activities, which included mountain climbing.  She also talks about the house she and Dr. Prouty built.

00:30:48	[End side 1; begin side 2]MB talks about President E. B. Fred, who told her that the University had hired Martha Peterson to replace Louise Troxell as Dean of Women.  Fred suggested that she get to know Peterson, as MB was from Nebraska and Peterson from neighboring Kansas.  This was in 1956.  Dr. Kathryn J. Schaffer from the Jackson Clinic was also from Kansas, and along with Dr. Prouty the four spent a great deal of time together.

00:31:33	When Peterson left to become president of Barnard College, MB had a sabbatical and a semester’s leave which she spent at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.  MB discusses how Peterson served on the Exxon board of directors and how they encouraged her to bring MB with her on several Exxon-sponsored trips.

00:34:08	Peterson and MB later acquired property in Door County that had been owned by Charles Bunn of the UW Law School.  Upon retirement, MB decided they should go into the antique business.  They ended up opening the Port Antique Shop, in Jacksonport, Wisconsin, which MB discusses.

00:36:14	Many of the meetings of the Triological Society were held in Florida.  Peterson and MB purchased a condominium in Marco, Florida, site of some of the meetings.

00:38:14	The conversation returns briefly to MB’s youth and she discusses her parents in more detail.  MB talks about a “pop stand” she started as a girl.  She made $100 off of it and used that money to attend Hastings College.

00:40:23	In Door County, MB enrolled in the Peninsula Arts School.  She took classes first in drawing and then in watercolor.  From there she took courses in pastels.  Since then she has become a pastel artist of Florida sunsets over the Gulf.  She intends to take another course in pastels this summer in Door County.

00:42:09	End of First Interview Session

End of Interview #589