Dr. J. Marion Sims

Dedicated in 1894, this bronze and granite monument stands on the Park perimeter in honor of Dr. James Marion Sims, a renowned surgeon regarded as the father of American gynecology. Sims’ work is credited for giving the field status as a separate medical specialty. He founded a hospital for women in New York and went on to become president of the American Medical Association. Lionized in life for his medical contributions, he has since been regarded a controversial figure for his use of slave women as experimental subjects.

Created by German artist Ferdinand von Miler II, the monument has a companion piece in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza – a bronze bust of Sims' colleague, Dr. Alexander Johnston Chalmers Skene.