In 2018, April Terra Livingston was commissioned to create trio of iron sculptures for the Mobile Medical Museum in Mobile, Alabama. The sculptures honor the achievements and healing of under-represented members of the medical community. The three cast iron works are the centerpiece of the museum’s exhibit, Dreaming at Dawn: African Americans and Health Care, 1865-1945, that tells the story of African American medical practitioners in Mobile during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras.

Livingston created the patterns in Mobile and then cast them in iron at the Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum in Solsberry, Indiana.

Midwives

To honor midwives, both past and present, Livingston created a sculpture featuring the hands of living local midwives, nurses and other local medical practitioners. Motherwork is a cast-iron sculpture showing eight pairs of life-size hands clasped together to form a circular, shield-like shape, with an open space between the hands that allows light to pass through. From the side view, the sculpture curves outward, resembling the swollen belly of a pregnant woman. Each pair of hands is cast from a real-life midwife or obstetric nurse. The title of the work is a term used by the distinguished sociologist Patricia Hill Collins to describe the work traditionally performed by midwives, who were predominantly African American women:

“Women of color have performed motherwork that challenges social construction of work and family as separate spheres, of male and female gender roles as similarly dichotomized, and of the search for autonomy as the guiding human question… ‘motherwork’ goes beyond ensuring the survival of one’s own biological children or those of one’s family. This type of motherwork recognizes that individual survival, empowerment, and identity require group survival, empowerment and identity.”

Livingston used alginate to make copies of the womens' hands, and she cast the entire sculpture in iron. During segregation, midwives were especially important to black women and women of color, whose hospitals were underfunded and understaffed. Today, midwives continue to offer their services to all women during pregnancy, through labor, and after birth.

The sculpture is permanently installed in the Museum’s Robert Thrower Medicinal Garden.

Mrs. Bessie McGhee

This cast iron portrait bust of Bessie McGhee commemorates the life and work of an early 20th century midwife from the Poarch Creek tribal community who was renowned for her healing skills and extensive knowledge about traditional herbal medicine. Bessie McGhee was born in Atmore, Alabama, and she acted as a respected leader for her Poarch Creek Tribe. Along with her work as a healer and midwife, she was also a passionate political advocate for her people. Mrs. McGhee’s services were in great demand during her lifetime, when tribal members were denied access to segregated hospitals and clinics in the Atmore area.

The sculpture is permanently installed in the Museum’s Robert Thrower Medicinal Garden.

Dr. James A. Franklin

Dr. Franklin served as a pillar of the medical community in Mobile, Alabama, for 53 years and was one of Mobile’s earliest and most distinguished African American physicians. It is said that he never turned away a penniless patient. After graduating in 1914 from the University of Michigan, Dr. Franklin helped create a community of medical services for minority people in Mobile, Alabama. His house often served as a sanctuary for African Americans in need of shelter or aid.

A full bodied, figurative maquette of Dr. James Franklin is permanently on view at the Museum.

About the Project

The sculptures were designated a bicentennial project by the Alabama Bicentennial Commission. The Mobile Medical Museum offers curriculum-based tours and other public programs throughout the year so that visitors of all ages can engage with the presented historical themes on many levels.

These projects were made possible through the generous support of the Franklin Primary Health Center, the Franklin Finley Family Fund, the Christian Benevolent Funeral Home, Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts. Funding for the 2018 Sally Clark Green Lecture Series is provided by Dr. Byron Green, Dr. Elizabeth Manci, and the Department of History and the Gender Studies Program at the University of South Alabama.

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