Sigh. I wrote about vandalism at the Wikipedia in January of 2009 in my article: Any fool can change the Wikipedia. All sorts of folks have tinkered with the Wikipedia, including birthers trying to remake popular history in their image. The latest apparent vandalism appeared today in an attempt to discredit Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate.
Two years ago, the Nordyke twins’ birth certificates were printed in the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper; they showed the birth hospital name as “The Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital” just as does the newly-released Barack Obama long form birth certificate.
One birther claim is:
According to the web site the name didn’t change to Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital until Kauikeolani Children’s Hospital merged with Kapi’olani Maternity Home in 1978. So how could his official long form birth certificate that was generated in 1961 have the name of the hospital that wasn’t created until 1978?
Of course, we know already what the hospital name was in 1961 from the Nordyke certificate. The birther email then goes on to quote the Wikipedia entry which actually doesn’t support the claim exactly (since it doesn’t mention Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in this section), but still is a contradiction to Obama’s birth certificate. The birther then says: “Check it Out your self at WIKI ! Gives 1978 as the Name Change Date !”
Perhaps in an attempt to deal with this issue, someone today changed the date from 1978 to 1958. (It has since been changed back.) Also somebody keeps adding the word “alleged” to the sentence: “It is also known for being the alleged birthplace of United States President Barack Obama”.
The Wikipedia article is obviously still wrong about the name change, but someone will have to find a good source before it gets fixed.
Birferstan is a really sick place, Birfers are falling over themselves in creating new garbage
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oh, and besides the Nordyke twins, my daughter’s 1965 Original Birth certificate also shows Kapiolani, as does all births from that era, birfers are too silly to be considered as anything but nutjobs. The hardcore birthers have gone berserk, they are still claiming foriegn birth. It is no longer conjecture, the holdouts are bigots and racistrs.
Not that there was much doubt before…
Just for clarification:
The institution that is now called Kapi’olani Medical Center was established in 1890 with money raised by Queen Kapiolani, and originally called Kapiolani Maternity Home.
In 1908, a separate hospital for children was established with funds donated by Albert and Emma Kauikeolani Wilcox, and appropriately named Kauikeolani Children’s Hospital .
The Kapi-olani web site does not tell us what the name of the maternity center was in 1961, but obviously Ann Dunham would have gone to a maternity hospital to give birth, and not to a children’s hospital.
In 1978, the two hospitals merged, and after merger became Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, which is what it is now called.
All this is on the Kapi’olani web site:
http://www.kapiolani.org/women-and-children/about-us/default.aspx
I don’t have a clue what Wikipedia says and I would never use Wikipedia as a primary source in any case — but obviously the birth certificate has the words “Kapiolani Maternity” — since it also has the words, “& Gynecological Hospital”, I think it is safe to assume that sometime between 1890 and 1961, there was a change in designation.
(See my next post for more info):
Here’s a page from a medical journal article published in August 1960; on the bottom of the
page, you will see a reference to:
“From the Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital, Honolulu Hawaii”
See: http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Citation/1960/16020/Hypnosis_in_Obstetrics_and_Gynecology.15.aspx
(It’s fairly easy to find this stuff with a Google scholar search — as you might anticipate, the name of the hospital regularly shows up in medical journals. )
Here’s a reference from 1955:
http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Citation/1955/04000/Obstetrics_in_Hawaii__Report_on_seven_years_.27.aspx
And here’s one from 1964:
http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Citation/1964/02000/Iatrogenic_Hematometra__Report_of_2_Cases.33.aspx
The earliest reference I find for the full name is from an article published in The American Journal of Surgery in 1940. I can’t find evidence of it being called “Kapiolani Maternity Home” after 1904 — so basically all I can say is that title was changed from “Maternity Home” to “Maternity and Gynecological Hospital” some time between 1904 and 1940. My guess is that historically that probably coincided with a shift from being staffed by midwives to being staffed by doctors & nurses.
Nice work, but if you look closely, it is published in 1955, but evidence that the name was used in 1954. Added it in comment at Wikipedia.
Sources from 1940/1943 have been found, and Wikipedia amended.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kapiolani_Medical_Center_for_Women_and_Children&oldid=426355155
And there is that little thing about seven years of research from 1947. There may be earlier references to the hospital’s name there. I wonder if anyone here who has reading facilities at a medical or university library can read on.
Well, for purposes of accuracy at Wikipedia, it would be nice to know the exact date of the change… but as far as birthers go, we’ve got the time frame covered, so I’m not sure if it worth pursuing much farther.
This guy might know, however – if anyone feels up to sending him an email:
http://www.hawaiianhistory.org/events/2009/0904pgm.html
at baratude.com there is an eloquent u-tube referrring to Klansman Trump, an insult to all black men as well as an insult to all America. A must view video:
http://www.baratunde.com/blog/2011/4/27/with-president-obamas-birth-certificate-klansman-trump-remin.html
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I agree Trump is a racist!
Wikipedia is flawed. Only the Youtubes are infallible.