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Photographer: Anna Inbody
Caption: J. Marion Sims
Additional Description: The Father of Modern Gynecology From the J. Marion Sims Foundation we get the following (along with this portrait of the good doctor): The J. Marion Sims Foundation takes its name from one of Lancaster County’s most distinguished historical figures. Dr. James Marion Sims was one of the most famous physicians of his time, renowned as a surgical genius and as one of the founders of operative gynecology. He practiced briefly in Lancaster before moving his practice to Alabama, and later to New York City. His patients included Empress Eugenie of France, wife of Napoleon III, Scotland’s Duchess of Hamilton, and the Empress of Austria. He was called on to administer surgical treatment to President James A. Garfield after he was shot in 1881. Dr. Sims served as president of the American Medical Association in 1876, as president of the International Medical Congress in 1877, and as president of the American Gynecological Society in 1880. Born in 1813 in what is now Heath Springs, Dr. Sims has been widely honored in his native state. A monument is dedicated to him on the State House grounds in Columbia, and the Medical University of South Carolina has established the J. Marion Sims Chair in Obstetrics-Gynecology. A dormitory at the University of South Carolina is named for Dr. Sims and Lancaster County’s first countywide hospital was named the Marion Sims Memorial Hospital. Dr. Sims died in 1883. Several oil portraits of him and his family members are displayed in the Foundation offices, as are some of his original surgical instruments.
Submitted: November 22, 2011, by Anna Inbody of Columbia, South Carolina.
Database Locator Identification Number: p182015
File Size: 0.008 Megabytes

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