At the time of his death in 1893, there was no controversy at all: Dr. J. Marion Sims was heralded as a surgical pioneer and a hero—thought of so highly, a statue memorializing him went up a year later in Bryant Park.
Sims’ achievement: He developed an operation that repaired vesico-vaginal fistulas—tears in the vaginal wall that often resulted during childbirth.
Women who suffered from them became invalids and outcasts because the tear allowed urine to leak constantly from the body. They’re unheard of now, except in the developing world.
After perfected his technique in the South, Sims came to New York and opened Women’s Hospital in 1855, the first women’s hospital in the country.
“Located on Madison Avenue and 29th Street in a rented, four-story house, the hospital’s 30 beds were quickly filled,” states St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Medical Center, which absorbed Women’s Hospital in 1964.
“In those early days, Sims operated without assistance from other doctors, performing one fistula repair each day.”
Sims shared his technique with doctors worldwide. In New York, Women’s Hospital outgrew its Madison Avenue digs and relocated to Park Avenue and 51st Street, then 109th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.
Today his statue is at Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street. Yet last year, a city councilwoman pushed to have it removed.
Why? Because Sims developed his surgery on female slaves in the South, and he didn’t use anesthesia—and modern-day critics have labeled him as racist and sexist because of this.
[Sims statue: Photo via Central Park Conservatory]
Tags: Central Park statues, Father of gynecology, first women's hospital, fistula surgery, J. Marion Sims, statues in New York City, Women's Hospital New York
Ephemeral New York 
February 13, 2012 at 6:46 am |
Yeah this guy IS a mixed bag, but the common use of anesthesia didn’t really happen until the later 1800s, after the Civil War. And yes, only using slaves could be construed as racist, but how can he be termed sexist? Was he supposed to work on men’s vaginal fistulas?
February 13, 2012 at 2:12 pm |
Yes, the Nazis made a lot of medical advances too. aspicco, even Western women have historically been subjected to more atrocities and indignities then their male counterparts. These barbaric experiments have never ended as western medical “pioneers” still carry on in other parts of the world: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/5/the_dark_history_of_medical_experimentation.
February 13, 2012 at 6:41 pm |
That physically tested his theories female slaves first does imply that he considered them more as lab animals than human beings but Aspicco makes an interesting point about the use of anesthesia. I wonder at what point he started operating on Caucasian women and if anesthesia was more prevalent at that time. I don’t know the answer…
February 13, 2012 at 10:08 pm |
My Son was delivered in ‘Women’s Hospital’ – but on Amsterdam & 114th St – same Founder?
February 13, 2012 at 10:10 pm |
Yes. Women’s Hospital moved to Amsterdam and 109th Street at some point after it outgrew its previous home. See the postcard above.
August 5, 2014 at 5:58 pm |
[…] Marion Sims who developed a very particular medical procedure for women that, well, we’ll let Ephemeral New York explain. The lot is now home to Cathedral Parkway Towers. · The controversial founder of Women’s […]
August 5, 2017 at 7:12 pm |
I was born in Women’s Hospital. So were all 6 of my siblings.
March 9, 2020 at 5:21 am |
[…] located on Madison Avenue and 29th Street and then Park Avenue and 51st Street, Women’s Hospital was founded by surgeon Dr. Marion Sims—whose reputation has been called into question and a Fifth Avenue statue dedicated to Sims […]
June 25, 2020 at 8:36 pm |
[…] Why? Because Sims developed his surgery on female slaves in the South, and he didn’t use anesthesia—and modern-day critics have labeled him as racist and sexist because of this. source. […]
November 24, 2020 at 7:37 am |
anjanette
The controversial founder of Women’s Hospital | Ephemeral New York
January 28, 2022 at 8:42 pm |
I don’t think it is appropriate to retrospectively put modern ethics/morality on historical events. One needs to examine the historical context. No anesthesia at the time was not unusual, created a hazardous condition (ether, for example is highly flammable) and just may not have been available.
March 21, 2024 at 7:20 pm |
please read “Medical Apartheid” byHarriet Washington for clarification whether or not inhalant anesthesia was available to slaves vs white women. Pgs. 64-71.