Published Monday, June 13, 2005

Teen assumes persona

Legendary doctor is focus of performance

By Matt Moline
The Capital-Journal

Not every teenager would know how to spell the word laryngoscope, an antique physician's instrument used to shed light on a patient's larynx.

But 14-year-old Robert Hamilton, of Topeka, actually will wear one of the antique reflecting devices this week at a pair of National History Day activities in Washington, D.C.

Hamilton will demonstrate the laryngoscope while re-creating a dramatic performance as the late Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine, the former state health secretary who popularized the "Don't spit on the sidewalk" public health clean-up campaign in the first decade of the 20th century.

Hamilton, who completed eighth grade last month at Topeka Collegiate School, is one of nine students from the United States who have been invited to present first-person performances of influential Americans on Wednesday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C.

Nick Krug/The Capital-Journal

Topekan Robert Hamilton, 14, is one of two participants representing Kansas in this year's National History Day competition in Washington, D.C. Hamilton will portray Dr. Samuel Crumbine, the early 20th century Kansas secretary of health.

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Hamilton began researchinig his topic last June in preparation for National History Day activities, which also required assembling the physicans' props that relate to the work of Kansas' pioneering public health doctor, who also gained national attention by banning the use of the common -- and very unsanitary -- drinking cup in schools and businesses in Kansas in 1910.

"I've done this performance so many times, it's sort of second nature to me," Hamilton said before leaving for the East Coast. "The more times I do it, the more I incorporate into my movements and actions, and I think more and more about, well, what would Dr. Crumbine be doing if he were performing?"

Later today, Hamilton will present his 10-minute Crumbine performance as one of 100 finalists from the 50 states in the preliminary round of the National History Day speech competition, staged at the University of Maryland-College Park.

The final round will take place on Thursday.

Hamilton says he isn't worried that his performance will lack belivablility with the contest judges, although the ninth-grader-to be is portraying a man who was in his late 50s at the time he resigned his state board of health post in Kansas in 1932.

"He was actually very youthful, from what I know," Hamilton said.

Matt Moline can be reached at matthew.moline@cjonline.com.