Talk:Doctor Willard Bliss

A fact from Doctor Willard Bliss appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 27 September 2011 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that after his shooting in 1881, U.S. President Garfield was treated by Doctor Doctor Bliss (pictured)?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2011/September. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Doctor Willard Bliss.

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Name[edit]

Shouldn't this page just be under "Willard Bliss", unless, of course, the guy's name was actually Doctor, which seems unlikely. IvoShandor (talk) 01:49, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

OK, so the disambig page says it was. hmm. IvoShandor (talk) 01:50, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The very first mention of the man's name has an explanatory note and a citation to explain that Doctor is his forename. GRAPPLE X 02:21, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps his name was Logan? --Lecen (talk) 02:22, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'd agree, based on those sideburns :) 67.184.152.73 (talk) 02:37, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Makes me wish we'd kept this article's DYK for April Fools next year! I'm sure we could've made a brilliantly confusing hook :-) Witty lama 04:23, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Would have been a good one. Ah, well. Just didn't notice the footnote, sorry about that. IvoShandor (talk) 08:00, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There should be some mention of his ironic name (preferably with primary sources cited!) because like the original commenter I was confused. And wikipedia's not about generating confusion 24.136.136.65 (talk) 09:41, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Whilst I fail to see any irony in a doctor being called Doctor, there is mention of the name, as his full name is the first thing mentioned in the text and is further elaborated upon through an additional footnote. GRAPPLE X 10:07, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I moved the page, but I clearly had no idea that "Doctor" was his first name. I didn't even know that was a name. Nonetheless, the footnote at the beginning of the article definitely helps. –Dream out loud (talk) 16:37, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The explanatory note says that "Doctor" is his SURNAME. Method for editing the footnote? 174.100.209.41 (talk) 04:54, 3 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Good spot! I've edited it. For future reference, even though footnotes are displayed in a section at the bottom of the page, they're generally defined in-line where their number appears in the text. If you hit the "edit" button on the article, you'll find this footnote between <ref> and </ref> tags near the start of the prose. Help:Footnotes might help more. matt (talk) 10:48, 3 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. 174.100.209.41 (talk) 02:57, 5 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Bliss' Namesake[edit]

The article states that Doctor Willard's namesake is Dr Samuel Willard of New England, citing ^[1] as evidence. However, this source states that a different Doctor Willard, one who was living at 203 Genesee St in Auburn, NY, and who delivered Bliss around 1833, was the latter's namesake. Not only did Samuel Willard not live in Auburn, NY, but he is known to have died around 1810, so this source is evidently referring to a seperate Dr Willard, thus directly contradicting the statement that cites it. Gingerbread Anima (talk) 01:14, 10 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ "How Dr. Bliss Got His Name" (PDF). New York Times. 1881. Retrieved September 30, 2012.

[nytimes-1] "How Dr. Bliss Got His Name" (PDF). New York Times. 1881. Retrieved September 30, 2012.

[1]