As the Smithsonian and other museums face challenges from the Trump administration about the content of exhibits that examine racial history in US history, Professor Deirdre Cooper-Owens is collaborating on educational efforts with activist and artist Michelle Browder to remember and honor the victims of medical abuse at the hands of James Marion Sims and other doctors since. Sims is broadly called the “father of modern gynecology”, but his victims- enslaved black women who historians had to work to recover the identities of, are now known only thanks to artists like Browder and dedicated research efforts by historians.
Dr. Cooper-Owens work on this front includes the 2017 book Medical Bondage, which delves into the long history of extensive exploitation and harm of black people and bodies in efforts to further medicine in US history. Browder’s artwork challenges the common narrative of a medical legacy built on unwilling procedures on enslaved women carried out by Sims through the construction and placement of pieces like “The Mothers of Gynecology” which represents Anarcha Westcott, Betsey, and Lucy, who Sims experimented on. The article emphasizes the importance of preserving and sharing these histories, and provides links to further reading about more incidents of experimentation and theft of bodily autonomy as well, noting infamous cases such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, and the story of Henrietta Lacks.
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