– by Wood Institute travel grantee Laura Smith*
On November 1, 1874, Dr. James H. Lenow procured the cadaver of an African American man from the state penitentiary in Arkansas and began dissecting it in a shed at the Little Rock Barracks, a military facility. Lenow would become an early faculty member at what would eventually be known as the University of Arkansas Medical School (UAMS) which was also located in Little Rock. The story of the dissection gave him prestige among the city’s residents and inspired local confidence in a growing medical status in the South. Lenow’s was the first legal dissection in Arkansas, and the state was so mesmerized by the deed that they built a monument to the dissection in May of 1927 on the spot it took place. The monument still stands today.