This paper is an exploration into the historian as an independent source of history. Homer T. Rosenberger was an amateur historian in Pennsylvania during the better part of the 20th century. His works on Pennsylvania history, early American history, and contemporary historical events are valuable, if unknown, resources in those fields. However, Rosenberger becomes his own source of history when his battle with cancer is examined in the context of the American 1950\u27s. Rosenberger\u27s reactions to his plight help illustrate the mindset American brought to cancer in the 1950\u27s and the transition in American society since then
