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“He had wanted the Arsenal…”
See “…Arsenal building…,” above.
It follows that the Arsenal building would have appealed to Sims’s lifelong fascination with military imagery and exploits.
Harris, S. (1950). Woman's surgeon: The life story of J. Marion Sims. New York: Macmillan, p. 170.
“…or even five hundred beds.”
From the speech of John Francis, on the occasion of the Woman’s Hospital annual gala in 1856.
The pamphlet published in honor of the occasion is held at the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes for Health in Bethesda, Maryland, p. 14.
“With charity balls and benefit concerts…”
The minutes of the February 7 and January 10, 1857, meeting of the Board of Managers are held at the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. Medical Archives and Mount Sinai Records office at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New York.
“In 1857, a contingent…”
SIMS, J. Marion, (1885). The Story of my Life, ed. by H. Marion-Sims. D. Appleton & Co: New York, p. 302.
“…Sims read aloud the petition of Caroline Thompson…”
See “…A uterine tumor…,” above.
As noted above, I believe that Sims and Stuart conspired to create a false statement for Caroline Thompson. Thompson was not a writer, and left behind no other work of any kind. It’s highly likely that she was already suffering from the tumor that would kill her, and it seems wholly improbable that she would rally what energy she had to speak on behalf of a doctor who wouldn’t be able to cure her. The message in the front of the pamphlet, from her husband, stipulates that she did not deliver the address to the legislature herself, and I don’t see Sims trusting the task to anyone else.
THOMPSON, C. M. (1857). Petition of Mrs. Caroline M. Thompson ... to the Hon. the Legislature of New York, in aid of the Woman's Hospital. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons, & Co.
“Sims had not yet managed to convince…”
“A Memoir of Dr. James Marion Sims,” Thomas Addis Emmet, New York Medical Journal, January 5, 1884, p. 3.
“The case needed to be made in such a way…”
I am speculating on Sims’s motives here, but I think the language and imagery of the address speaks for itself in terms of the audience to which it is attempting to appeal.
“How many of you…”
THOMPSON, C. M. (1857). Petition of Mrs. Caroline M. Thompson ... to the Hon. the Legislature of New York, in aid of the Woman's Hospital. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons, & Co., p. 4.