Talk:Richard Henry Greene

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WikiProject Medicine

The Correct Spelling of Dr Richard Henry Greene's Name - With an "e"

Primary source war year documents with Dr Greene's bold signature (Application/Examination for Assistant Surgeon in the US Navy - in my personal collection; over 15 Hospital Tickets for patient admission to Navy hospitals from us Navy ships - in NARA collection available on Ancestry.com; and letters sold at auction) and his cemetery headstone (findagrave.com) all spell R.H. Greene with an "e". Many secondary source documents (including Yale and Dartmouth Catalogues of Graduates), the Yale University Library "Guide to the Richard Henry Green Papers" and recent biographical articles (2 in the Yale Alumni Magazine) incorrectly use the spelling without the "e". This Wikipedia page requires an edit of all the usages of the spelling Green to correctly read Greene. I have considered posting a high resolution image of the Biographical Sketch from his Application for Assistant Surgeon, dated November 3, 1863 with his signature "R. H. Greene" (which includes the Medical Examination Boards note: “Fresh from school; no practical experience—sprightly and tolerably well booked. Weighs 220 lbs.” Since this document is a work of the US Government and is dated prior to 1927, it would be considered public domain, requiring only attribution to my collection. I believe in order to quell an argument that might ensue, it will actually be required to do this along with an image of his headstone.

Before I were to make such a drastic edit of all the uses of the spelling "Green" to "Greene" and incur the ire of the Editorial Staff of Wikipedia (and others), I present this notice to other contributors to this Wikipedia Talk page thread for discussion.

Please post any thoughts regarding an image posting which gives some interesting information about himself in his own hand and about a wholesale name edit. It must be done; I just want some backing here.

Norm Herman Nlherman (talk) 03:17, 19 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Reliable Source deletion - R. H. Greene headstone

I made an external link edit to Richard Henry Green wikipedia page. Specifically it was directed to a page on a reputable historical site, Find-a-Grave (findagrave.com), which displays a picture of the Dr Greene' headstone in Old Bennington Cemetery, in Bennington, Vermont: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/171314932/richard-henry-greene It plainly shows the name of "R H GREENE ASST. SURG. U. S. Navy".

I added this link to start an evidence chain to dmonstrate that secondary sources throughout many years (starting with Alumni Catalogues from the late 1800's (e.g. Yale and Dartmouth) through to published biographies in magazines (e.g., Yale Alumni Magazine) and even the "Richard Henry Green Personal Papers" in the Yale University Library, have incorrectly spelled his name.

I guess uI will have fortify my argument. I will inquire that the special collections librarian at Yale look at the R H Greene documents and reveal the spelling Nlherman (talk) 23:47, 19 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You are right, he preferred and used the name Greene. As a result, I will change references in the article to Greene and I will also change the article name ("move" the page to the correct name). Thanks!

If you have photographs of his gravestone and plaque, and any letters, would you please upload those to Wikimedia Commons? ProfGray (talk) 15:24, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In making the move, I wrote in the summary: "Dr. Greene preferred and used the spelling "Greene" even though his father was "Green" and he had used that name at Yale. His preference was not recognized by reliable sources in 2014, but subsequently recognized. In 2023, Yale Alumni Magazine discussed evidence for the "Greene" spelling, including letters by the Greene and his father, and Yale itself started to adopt Greene. His gravestone is also Greene." ProfGray (talk) 20:16, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I have added the hand-written Bio-Sketch page from Dr. Richard Henry Greene's Application for Assistant Surgeon, Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts, dated 3 November 1863. This is from my Personal Collection, however since is is a work of the US Government, it cannot be copyrighted. It is therefore Public Domain. It shows the Greene spelling of his name, as of that date. It also interestingly shows his date of birth to be in 1837. It also is the source of the Naval Medical Examining Board Note (in pencil): "Fresh from school; no practical experience – sprightly and tolerably well booked. Weighs 220 lbs." BTW, I shared this information with Yale Alumni Magazine in 2013 and they subsequently used it in 2014 publications. Unfortunately they never gave attribution to me as the source. Oh well...

Nlherman02 (talk) 18:51, 11 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Resolving Dr Richard Henry Greene's Birth Year

It is now also important to resolve the issue regarding the birth year of Dr. Greene. I realize that all the secondary and tertiary sources say his birth year was 1833. However, there is no better evidence than the ultimate primary source, namely Dr. Greene's handwritten bio-sketch from his application for assistant surgeon stating he was born in 1837 (posted here and added to WikiMedia Commons). I've convinced the contributor of his memorial on Find-a-Grave to change his birth year. I believe this document is the evidence to making that decision on Wikipedia as well. Making this change on his Wiki page on my own would cause a firestorm as a result all the articles that have been published of his recently uncovered fame. It would be helpful to my cause if I could publish this document to his page, but since I had to restart my member ID because my login was hacked, I don't have enough edits/posts yet to have permission to do so. So until I can, I await comment on this subject here on his Talk page. Nlherman02 (talk) 02:25, 12 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]