Read the Essay | Go to NLM Digital Collections | Watch on YouTube | Read Transcript
DATE: 1936 LENGTH: 35 min [edited from full length of 69 minutes] CATEGORY: Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White, Clinical & Surgical |
DIRECTOR: Joseph B. DeLee, M.D. PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: Joseph B. DeLee, M.D., M. Edward Davis, M.D., Fox Movietone Scientific |
Warning: The film contains explicit images of disease or intrusive medical treatment. Viewer discretion advised.
Summary
Dr. Joseph Bolivar DeLee, a founder in the late 1890s of the Chicago Lying-In Dispensary (for needy women) as well as the Chicago Lying-In Hospital, the model maternity center of its day, was at times called “the #1 obstetrician, USA.” DeLee also was a serious filmmaker dedicated to the visual explication of his obstetrical techniques. He acquired professional equipment, wrote scripts, improvised sound effects, and deployed as many as a dozen women over a period of hours and days if necessary to complete a movie precisely as he felt it should be. These films were intended to teach, persuade, and fundraise for the next one….Read the Essay
View another film featured in the essay.
Supplementary Materials
Film Stills from The Science and Art of Obstetrics: Laparotrachelotomy: Low Cervical Cesarean
In the Collections of the National Library of Medicine
NLM Historical Audiovisuals Collection
Explore digitized films on obstetrics in the NLM Digital Collections
NLM Prints & Photographs Collection

National Library of Medicine #101596989

National Library of Medicine #101435119

National Library of Medicine #101435441
NLM Rare Book Collection
Meddlesome Midwifery in Renaissance, by Joseph B. DeLee, ca. 1916
“Joseph B. DeLee, A Eulogy” in Mother’s Aid of the Chicago Lying-in Hospital and Dispensary, April, 1942
Preliminary Report of a Case of Caesarean Section, Successful for Mother and Child, by Joseph B. DeLee, 1896
View in NLM Digital Collections
Related Resources from the National Library of Medicine
Joseph DeLee in PubMed Central
Obituary, in Br Med J. 1942 Jun 6; 1(4248): 711.
Joseph B. DeLee and the practice of preventive obstetrics, in Am J Public Health. 1988 October; 78(10): 1353–1361.
More in PMC…
MedlinePlus Consumer Health Information
When might forceps or a caesarean section be used today?
How are childbirth complications handled?
External Resources
Articles and Websites
Learn more about the Chicago Lying-In Hospital founded by Joseph B. DeLee.
Explore a finding aid for the archival records of the Chicago Lying-in Hospital held at the University of Chicago.