The Literature of Prescription: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Yellow Wall-Paper” – a National Library of Medicine (NLM) traveling exhibit about a 19th century writer’s challenge to the medical profession and the relationship between science and society – is now on display at the South Campus (main) Library until January 31, 2011.
Walk around, read all the panels, and share your thoughts about the exhibit in the exhibit journal. NLM has an online exhibition companion web site. There is also a book display and binder of printed copies of some of the referenced works from the exhibit.
In the 19th century, at a time when women were challenging traditional ideas about gender that excluded them from political and intellectual life, medical and scientific experts drew on notions of female weakness to justify inequality between the sexes. Discouraged from pursuing a career to preserve her health, Charlotte Perkins Gilman rejected these ideas in a terrifying short story: “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” This famous tale served as an indictment of the medical profession and the social conventions restricting a woman’s professional and creative opportunities.