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“…a Maury family friend.”
Letter from William L. Maury to Anne Fontaine Maury, July 14, 1862, held in the Maury Family Collection at the Special Collections department of Alderman Library at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Lewis refers to Dr. Gibson, who was then head of surgery for the army of Virginia, with familiarity, as though his wife, Nan, already knows who he is. Some time before, Gibson had helped launched the Medical College of Virginia at the Egyptian Building (see “Egyptian Building,” above), just a few blocks from the home of Robert H. Maury in Richmond, a common stopping place for Maurys.
“…he’d heard the story before.”
See “…Mittag told Maury…,” above.
“…the loss of his wife…”
See “…translator…and a dire letter from home…,” above.
“…Lewis had learned more…”
Letter from Ann Maury to a cousin, from New York, Mary 27, 1859, held in the Maury Family materials at the Special Collections department of the Swem Library at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia.
There is no direct evidence that Lewis was aware of Sims’s 1854 lecture, the details of which are documented in full in later chapters. However, Maury family letters reveal that they were aware of doctors specializing in women’s medicine in New York—almost certainly a reference to Sims—and as will be seen their family physician was Dr. John Francis, who became Sims’s colleague at Woman’s Hospital.
“Anarca—slave of Wm L. Maury.”
The image in the printed book connecting Anarcha to William L. Maury and Caroline County, Virginia, is from the first case record book of Woman’s Hospital in New York City, documenting the hospital’s earliest cases. I first saw and photographed the case record books when they were held at an archive at Roosevelt Hospital on the Upper West Side of New York. They have since been moved and are now held at the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. Medical Archives and Mount Sinai Records office at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New York.