J Marion Sims monument

On Tuesday, April 17, 2018, Sims' monument has been removed from its original place to the Green Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn where Marion Sims is buried, because of his controversial surgical experiments performed in the 19th century on slave women¹.

This famous bronze monument of the father of american gynecology, J Marion Sims, can be seen just in front of the The New York Academy of Medicine, at Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street, in New York City.

"Sims is depicted by German artist Ferdinand von Miller II (1842-1929) in surgical wear. (…) It was cast in Munich, Germany in 1892 and dedicated at Reservoir Square, now known as Bryant Park, two years later"².

Apart the name of Sims and his years of birth (1813) and death (1883), in the two round inscriptions on the basament we can read: "SURGEON & / PHILANTHROPIST / FOUNDER OF THE WO- / MAN'S HOSPITAL STATE OF / NEW YORK. HIS BRILLIANT / ACHIEVEMENT CARRIED / THE FAME OF AMERICAN / SURGERY THROUGH- / OUT THE ENTIRE / WORLD"; "IN RECOGNITION / OF HIS SERVICES IN / THE CAUSE OF SCIENCE / & MANKIND. AWARDED / HIGHEST HONORS BY HIS / COUNTRYMEN & DECOR / ATIONS FROM THE GOV / ERNMENTS OF BELGIUM / FRANCE - ITALY - SPAIN / & PORTUGAL".

• Photos by Luca Borghi ti.supmacinu|ihgrob.l#| (June 2017)

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Footnotes

1. See Ginia Bellafante, //Statue of Doctor Who Did Slave Experiments Is Exiled. Its Ideas Are Not//, The New York Times, 18 April 2018.

2. Official website of New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.