Medical Dissection and the East Marshall Street Well

The Racial Equity series provides the link between history and current day health inequities and disparities experienced by people in our community. This educational content was donated by the History and Health programming at the VCU Office of Health Initiatives.

In April 1994, human bones and artifacts from the 19th century were discovered in an abandoned well uncovered during construction of the Kontos Building on Virginia Commonwealth University’s MCV Campus. The well’s contents are believed to have been discarded in the 1800s by medical staff. Although covered by the media in 1994, the discovery remained largely unaddressed by the university until awareness of the well’s history was included in Dr. Shawn Utsey’s 2011 documentary, “Until the Well Runs Dry.” This documentary (linked below) examined the issue of grave robbing and use of Black cadavers in medical education during the 19th century. Since that time, VCU has committed itself to moving forward in a manner reflecting the dignity that should be accorded these individuals and has created the East Marshall Street Well Project (linked below) to facilitate a process with the community that ensures the remains receive appropriate study, memorialization and reburial.

Objectives

• Discuss the history of grave robbing and the use of Black cadavers in 19th-century medical education at MCV.
• Describe the relevance and importance of VCU’s East Marshall Street Well Project and VCU Health’s understanding of structural racism.
• Explain the ways in which structural racism has played a role in health disparities in Richmond.
• Identify ways in which VCU Health team members will intend to incorporate awareness of structural racism into patient care (required only for those pursuing CME credits).

his lecture by Jodi Koste, Archivist and Head of Special Collections at VCU Health Sciences Library, describes the history of medical dissection and medical school training. The practice of disinterring cadavers (i.e., grave robbing or bodysnatching) by Resurrectionists is described with specific reference to its role in the history of the Medical College of Virginia.

[NOTE: Watch the video from 15:22 to 43:40].

This brief article describes the discovery of human remains in an abandoned well uncovered during construction of VCU’s Kontos Building. The article then overviews the history of the East Marshall Street Well Project and describes the 2019 memorialization ceremony that returned to Richmond the remains of 44 adults and nine children recovered from the well — most of whom were likely African or African Americans and enslaved.

Read the article by VCU News, “A Journey Home”.

Beyond the Organ Thieves tells of the events and programs launched over the past 50 years at the VCU Medical Center since the first heart transplant was performed in 1968. Watch the 16-minute video and take note from 7:30 to 10:47 to hear from Richmond Residents regarding the past and moving forward.

“Organ Thieves: The True Shocking Story of the first Heart Transplant in the Segregated South,” by Chip Jones was the 2022-2023 VCU Common Book.

The East Marshall Street Well Project: A Story of our Ancestral Remains

Jen Early, Ph.D., project manager at VCU Health and member of the Family Representative Council for the East Marshall Street Well Project, accounts the history of human remains found in the East Marshall Street Well on the VCU Medical Center Campus. The presentation will explore the practice of 19th-century grave robbing for the purposes of procuring cadavers for medical study, and how this practice is only one contributor to institutional racism in health care.

The East Marshall Street Well Project websiteLinks to an external site.: This VCU website describes the history of the East Marshall Street Well Project, including the final recommendations report from the project’s Family Representative Council as well as updates on ongoing work.

The East Marshall Street Well science curriculumLinks to an external site.:  VCU faculty and students created this five lesson curriculum for middle, high and college students to share the respectful analysis of ancestral human remains and public engagement and education on medical racism, specifically towards those of African Descent.

Reverence & Remembrance: The East Marshall Street Well Project: Visit the exhibit that honors those whose remains were uncovered in 1994 during the construction of a VCU medical building, located on the fourth floor of James Branch Cabell Library.

Misrepresenting Race: Biases against Black Americans persist into the present day and impede equity in health care. This 2021 New England Journal of Medicine article, written by a coalition of Black bioethics scholars and their allies, argues (p. 6): “Medical education and research are intertwined and jointly responsible for perpetuating misunderstandings of race. Students carry such misinformation with them into the clinic, where their implicit biases and misconceptions perpetuate disparities in health care.”

Abolition Medicine: This 2-page article published in The Lancet in 2020 explains the role of abolition medicine in addressing racial health disparities. The author argues (p. 159), “Abolition medicine means challenging race-based diagnostic tools and treatment guidelines that reinforce antiquated and scientifically inaccurate notions of biological race. It means integrating longitudinal anti racist training into medical education, including the history of racism in medicine and structural factors that produce racial health disparities, while actively recruiting, retaining, and supporting Black and other minoritised faculty, staff, and students.”

This module was authored by Lynn Pelco, Ph.D., former associate vice provost for community engagement and now a senior scholar in the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) at the University of Richmond. This module was adapted from Rader, K (2021). SCTS 200: Science in Society. Undergraduate course, Virginia Commonwealth University and has been reviewed and approved by the EMSW Project Family Representative Council. All modules undergo a rigorous curriculum peer reviewal process.

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