Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Andrew Ruppenstein
Taken: October 4, 2016
Caption: J. Marion Sims Statue and Marker - Wide View
Additional Description: From 1845 to 1849 Sims conducted a series of experiments on enslaved Black women that led to medical breakthroughs in treating vesicovaginal fistula, which results from difficult childbirths. Three of the enslaved women were identified by Sims as Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy. Medical scholarship has debated Sims' application of "informed consent" with respect to these enslaved patients. By law, slaves had no personal rights and were the property of their owners who held possession of their lives, their bodies, and their labor. Many have also condemned the ethics of Sims’ scientific methods. He operated on these subjects, in some cases repeatedly, without the use of anesthesia. At the time, anesthesia was new to the medical profession, and was first publicly demonstrated at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846. - New York City Department of Parks & Recreation
Submitted: October 11, 2016, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California.
Database Locator Identification Number: p365628
File Size: 4.167 Megabytes

To see the metadata that may be embedded in this photo, sign in and then return to this page.