Page 223
“…fifteen notices in fifteen newspapers…”
See “…a total of fifteen publications…,” above.
“…appeared at Sims’s door…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, pp. 283-84.
“…tinkered with the draft of his speech…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 283.
“…Sims would say…”
The accounts of what Sims said in his lecture tend toward vagueness. In imagining what Sims was thinking as he prepared his lecture, I have limited myself to these sources, to the forces upon his life at the time, and to commonly held beliefs of the day.
The New York Times, May 18, 1854, p. 8; New York Medical Gazette, June 1854, p. 283; New York Medical Bulletin, June 1854, p. 320.
“…a great rain hammered the city…”
The New York Times, May 18, 1854, p. 8.
“Sims took a seat near the podium…”
I have elaborated somewhat on Sims’s spare description of the events leading up to the lecture.
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 284.