The East Marshall Street Well Project is a collaborative initiative to ensure appropriate study, memorialization, and burial of human remains uncovered from an abandoned well in 1994 during the construction of a Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) medical building. The remains of more than fifty individuals, including at least nine children, most of African descent, were used for anatomical study and education during the 19th century. The Medical College of Virginia (MCV), later renamed the VCU Medical Center when MCV and Richmond Professional Institute (RPI) merged to form VCU, relied on the exploitation of Black Virginians since its 1838 inception as a medical department in Hampden-Sydney College. MCV faculty and staff obtained human remains (archival evidence indicates predominantly through graverobbing) between 1848 to 1860 for use in anatomy and dissection classes, and then discarded these remains in a well. For reasons of economic expediency, the well, which was named the East Marshall Street Well (EMSW), was not fully excavated, and the remains that were collected were sent to the Smithsonian, where they were placed in storage. In 2011, a documentary produced by VCU professor of African American Studies Dr. Shawn Utsey, titled Until the Well Runs Dry: Medicine and the Exploitation of Black Bodies, drew attention to the history underpinning the discovery of the EMSW. Two years later, VCU convened the EMSW Project to implement the recommendations of the Family Representative Council (FRC), a group composed of community leaders representing the descendant community in Richmond, since the identities of the people whose remains had been excavated could not be determined. The EMSW Project consequently focused on unpacking the role of racism in medicine and on working to ensure that these individuals are given the respect historically denied to them and their loved ones.
Through a series of interviews, The East Marshall Street Well Oral History Archive documents the story of the EMSW Project since its inception. This archive was created in response to the 2018 recommendations issued by the Family Representative Council (FRC) that prioritized research, memorialization, and interment. Narrators include members of the FRC, as well as others connected with the EMSW Project. Stretching across thirty years, the oral history project records the reasons people joined this work, their respective roles, and the decisions behind the project. It offers a case study for community-led processes of institutional reconciliation work and university efforts toward reparative justice.
The project was organized through the Health Humanities Lab at the Humanities Research Center and funded through grants from the Quest Fund, the Medical College of Virginia Foundation, a Vertically Integrated Project grant from the Office of the Provost’s Transformative Learning Fund, a Division of Community Engagement Grant, and an Impact Award. It has received additional funding support from the Humanities Research Center, the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS), the History and Health Program in the Office of Health Equity, Office of the President, and the Honors College. The project benefited from collaborations with The Workshop and Special Collections and Archives at VCU Libraries. To ensure public accessibility, project continuity, and best practices in archival management, Special Collections and Archives at VCU Libraries serves as the repository for the project.
Copyright
This material is protected by copyright, and copyright is held by each narrator. You are permitted to use this material in any way that is permitted by copyright. In addition, this material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Acknowledgment of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is required.
Additional research information
The collection is housed in Special Collections and Archives at VCU Libraries. Please direct reference and research inquiries to libsca@vcu.edu or call (804) 828-1108.
Research posters created by VCU Health Humanities Lab student fellows are accessible via the East Marshall Street Well Project Symposium Posters collection.
Background documents about the East Marshall Street Well Project are also available from the VCU Office of the President Documents collection.
Credits
The East Marshall Street Well Oral History Project was designed and created by postdoctoral fellows Dr. Maggie Unverzagt Goddard and Dr. Daniel Sunshine, postdoctoral advisors and project co-directors Dr. Chris Cynn and Dr. Michael Dickinson in collaboration with and under the supervision of the East Marshall Street Well Project Steering Committee and the Family Representative Council, with special thanks to FRC members Carmen Foster and Stephanie Smith. The project was organized through the Humanities Research Center’s Health Humanities Lab directed by Dr. Chris Cynn.
Community activist Ana Edwards is the primary interviewer, unless otherwise indicated. Audio producers include Dr. Daniel Sunshine, Jada Ross, Ramin Fazeli, Micah White, Michael Carrington, and Dr. Maggie Unverzagt Goddard with essential support from student employees at The Workshop, along with logistical support from Eric Johnson. Dr. Oscar Keyes at The Workshop provided expertise in audio recording through technical consultations and support. Dr. Chioke I’Anson at the Institute for Contemporary Art's VCU Community Media Center also provided guidance on audio production.
Credits for transcriptions and metadata entry, completed by Dr. Daniel Sunshine, Dr. Michael Dickinson, and Health Humanities Lab student fellows, are included for each interview. Digital Initiatives Librarian Irina Rogova, Head of Digital Libraries and Publishing Karen Bjork, and Maggie Unverzagt Goddard created the metadata categories, which document who completed metadata entry for each interview. Maggie Unverzagt Goddard established connections with campus partners like The Workshop and Special Collections and Archives at VCU Libraries and designed project workflow. Daniel Sunshine coordinated scheduling recording, drafting interview outlines, supervising student employees, digitization, quality control, and project management.
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Interview with Carmen Foster Part 1
This interview was conducted as part of the East Marshall Street Well Project. Ana Edwards, a public historian and teaching professor, interviewed Dr. Carmen Foster, who serves on the Family Representative Council. They discussed Dr. Foster's deep family history in Richmond, and how she got involved in the East Marshall Street Well Project. This is part one of a two part interview.
In this first interview, Dr. Foster discussed her family’s long history as Black medical professionals in Richmond, Virginia. Her father, Francis Merrill Foster, was a dentist known in the community as a storyteller. She also shared family history on the lives of Harriet Taylor and her daughter, Virginia Taylor, exemplary Black midwives in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. Woven into this family history are conversations about the gentrification of Black spaces, race relations, and economic opportunity in Richmond through the decades. Next, Dr. Foster discussed joining the East Marshall Street Well Project and the process of community consults. Drawing on her experience as a leadership educator in government and in higher education, Dr. Foster concluded by reflecting on the novel success of the Family Representative Council, but also some of the challenges that accompanied this trailblazing project. The conversation continues in Dr. Foster’s second interview. -
Interview with Carmen Foster Part 2
This interview was conducted as part of the East Marshall Street Well Project. Ana Edwards, a public historian and teaching professor, interviewed Dr. Carmen Foster, who serves on the Family Representative Council. This is the second and final interview with Dr. Foster. In this interview, Dr. Foster reflected on the organizational challenges of the East Marshall Street Well Project, but also the opportunties for tying this reparative work into a larger vision for Black public history in Richmond.
In this second interview, Dr. Foster returns to finish her discussion with Ana Edwards about the East Marshall Street Well Project’s goals and broader implications. This wide-ranging conversation was built on several core themes: organizational challenges within the EMSW Project, building community support, VCU’s opportunity to reimagine public history in Richmond, and spiritual healing. Throughout, Dr. Foster reiterated that the FRC are volunteers providing a community vision for the EMSW Project, but that VCU must supply the leadership for realizing that vision. Her hope is that the EMSW Project can align with Project Gabriel and the city’s plans to redevelop the historical landscape of Shockoe Bottom to tell a comprehensive history of race in Richmond. -
Interview with Jodi Koste
This interview was conducted as part of the East Marshall Street Well Project. Ana Edwards, a public historian and teaching professor, interviewed Jodi Koste, who recently retired from VCU as the University Archivist. In this interview, Ms. Koste discussed her memory of the discovery of the East Marshall Street Well in 1994, her role in advising VCU administrators about the institution's history, and her vision for how the East Marshall Street Well Project can be memorialized and taught at VCU.
In this interview, Ms. Koste sat with Ana Edwards to discuss her experience with the East Marshall Street Well Project. Ms. Koste is one of the only people affiliated with the EMSW Project who was actually present during the discovery of the well in 1994. She reflected on the creation of the East Marshall Street Well Project in 2013, and the formation of the Family Representative Council. Ms. Koste also recounted providing historical context for the Cold War-era atomic radiation program and the Confederate memorial removal process. The interview concludes with a conversation about what a successful endpoint for the East Marshall Street Well Project would look like, as well how VCU’s attitude towards its institutional history has shifted over the decades.