Elements to Consider Regarding Eponymous Features at HMS

Below are the guiding principles formulated by a special task force of the Harvard Medical School Faculty Council Subcommittee on Artwork and Cultural Representations, for use in considering HMS history, current spaces, and symbols and how each impacts the School's mission, and for use in general consideration of how and why HMS commemorates certain individuals across its campus.

  • Eponymous features, such as institutional artwork and named spaces, do more than beautify our campus. Such features are intended to inspire the community by providing examples of individuals from HMS who were and are standard bearers of our mission and values.
  • When eponymous features are present within campus spaces, the images and names of current or former HMS community members represented in them further serve as examples of medical, scientific, and other forms of accomplishment to which current community members might likewise aspire.
  • This is the two-fold objective regarding eponymous features: Inspiration and Aspiration. Here, the collective vision of our greatest potential should be our guiding star; spaces should reflect and empower the HMS community.
  • It is important to note that eponymous features project an intentional and aspirational institutional identity for our students and the world beyond HMS’s own walls.
  • HMS should move to a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to its physical spaces that communicates its mission and values, including its commitment to a just and equitable society.
  • Scientific theories change as new hypotheses are formulated and novel approaches and data become available. There are many examples of so-called foundations within science and medicine that crumbled as research revealed new, unexpected, and even uncomfortable truths.
  • More generally, medicine and science develop in the midst of particular intellectual, political, economic, social, and cultural contexts.
  • Social dogmas also change and will continue to change over time, including as people everywhere recognize the damaging impact of inequality and commit to advancing diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
  • In reflecting upon institutions whose history is dominated by white men as well as various historical individuals at many colleges and universities around the world, Dean Daley stated in his 09/10/19 speech during the portrait unveiling of Professor William A. Hinton (AB 1905, MD 1912) that when it comes to the individuals and accomplishments that we choose to commemorate, “It is important to ask what students are meant to take away from [depictions of those who] neither resembled them nor likely welcomed anyone like them?”
  • In his 02/28/20 charge to the HMS Faculty Council Subcommittee on Artwork and Cultural Representations, Dean Daley stated, “… the meaning of institutionally installed artwork is part of a larger national debate regarding diversity and inclusion. Extending far beyond the general concepts of aesthetics and “campus beautification,” considerations of why, where, and especially whom schools choose to commemorate in statuary, portraiture, and other forms of artwork call upon institutions to take stock of their core values and to determine how those principles are reflected across the community as a whole.”
  • On 07/26/20, Dean Daley made a special request of the Faculty Council Subcommittee on Artwork and Cultural Representations: “… should the name of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Society at HMS be changed, what general principles should guide such a decision, and if it should change, what might the new name be?” Dean Daley asked that the committee, “… offer him guidance on this specific question as it relates to our general charge to consider how and why we commemorate certain individuals in our campus artwork.”
  • In doing so, we recognize that the process for making such a decision will inform how subsequent requests will be addressed. Transparent documentation of the reasoning and process behind decisions should be articulated to the community and recorded/maintained in perpetuity as part of the HMS archives in a manner that is accessible in the future. These guiding principles are crafted such that they strive to inform decision making regarding all forms of eponymous recognition including, but extending beyond, artwork.
  • Change is difficult and not to be taken lightly, including when it involves celebration/depictions of individuals of a historical nature. We realize from the outset that not everyone is going to agree with decisions to install, move, retain or remove eponymous features/recognition at HMS and for reasons in keeping with their own lines of thinking. This should not prevent HMS from dedicating itself to reinforcing a positive, equity-centered, and inclusive institutional culture.
  • Eponymous recognition should be accorded in a manner that is consistent with HMS’s mission statement, community values, and diversity statement. Please see: https://hms.harvard.edu/about-hms/campus-culture/mission-statement-community-values and https://hms.harvard.edu/about-hms/campus-culture/diversity-inclusion/harvard-medical-school-diversity-statement
  • Within these three statements, there are sections that may be emphasized:
    • The HMS Mission Statement
      • To nurture a diverse, inclusive community dedicated to alleviating suffering and improving health and well-being for all through excellence in teaching and learning, discovery and scholarship, and service and leadership.
    • From the HMS Community Values
      • Diversity & Respect
        • We foster a culture of inclusion and engagement and communicate respectfully.
        • We seek diversity and promote equity and social justice.
      • Integrity & Accountability
        • We speak up and empower others to do the same.
    • From the HMS Diversity Statement
      • We acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of our history and actively promote social justice, challenge discrimination, and address disparities and inequities.
      • We respect the dignity of all members of our community and aspire to ensure that all feel valued and supported.
      • We continuously monitor our diversity and inclusion efforts to ensure that the outcomes bring HMS closer to reflecting the diversity found in our patients, community and nation.
  • As an educational institution, it is important to not make changes that seek to bury or “erase” our history, especially when that history is less than laudable. Instead, we should place our history into context and promote our reckoning with it as a tool for, among other things, the teaching and praxis of social justice.
  • Having visible, comprehensive documentation of artwork and eponymous features at HMS is an opportunity for every person who walks across our campus to understand the complex history behind the names we live with, the history of HMS and its values, as well as science and medicine more generally.
  • It is critical that we acknowledge, as a community, that when we create intentional spaces that foster Inspiration and Aspiration, we must likewise preserve those that promote critical engagement with the past as a means of creating a better future, such as exhibit and museum spaces, which in many respects demand that we engage with our discomfort as we explore the history of medicine and public health broadly.
  • The location of eponymous features matters a great deal. Not every name and/or artistic holding achieves its associated goals of celebration and/or education in every context. This point was reflected in the 02/28/20 Harvard College Report of the Working Group on Symbols and Spaces of Engagement. It is important to recognize that the setting in which an individual is memorialized may “cause alienation and discomfort.” To put a finer point on this, “Many students feel that they should not have to live with seeing such artwork daily in a space that is supposed to be their home and sanctuary.”
  • HMS’s MD and HSDM’s DMD students consider the academic societies their “home” while at Harvard. Associated academic society names should reflect the values that students associate with home (e.g. inclusive, trusting, respectful, loving, open-minded). A space of inclusive excellence within the societies is vital to HMS’s goal of educating the next generation of physician leaders. It is a critical consideration to choose names for student societies that model our highest goals.
  • The Harvard College Report went on to stress that when it comes to guiding principles supporting installation or removal of campus features, “… (a) statement should not be construed as a set of rules, but rather an articulation of values for decisionmakers to factor into the process of selecting work.”
  • The Harvard College Report further referenced the work of the 03/27/18 Harvard Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging entitled “Inclusive Values, Symbols and Spaces.” Here, the community was called to “…consider “past and present in proportion.” Symbols and communications materials should convey the openness and accessibility of our campus and of an academic life to people from all backgrounds. While continuing to respect our distinguished past, we should nonetheless shift the emphasis in our images, portraits and public art to the present and future. This will permit us to represent the campus’ current and anticipated diversity.”
  • Given the aforementioned importance of context, each instance of an eponymous feature is best considered separately when there are multiple representations of the same individual across the campus. We should thoughtfully consider whether or not there is value in having multiple representations across campus and the perceived privileging of various individuals if encountered in many locations. The considerations of one instance may well inform those of other instances of the same individual.
  • In general, Harvard creates eponymous tributes that are directly linked to our community as a way to capture and celebrate our own unique history. However, it is important to note that such an approach may inadvertently reinforce historical biases.
  • Eponymous tributes are not generally made to honor active community members including faculty. Additionally, highly visible eponymous tributes are not generally made to honor living community members including faculty.
  • Periodic reevaluation of HMS’s eponymous features would create the opportunity for new rounds of recognition and would greatly diminish the added difficulty of changing features that are otherwise considered “permanent.” Exceptions to this include instances according to the terms of specific gifts.
  • It is important to recognize that change is an inspirational and enabling force that allows HMS to realize its mission, especially as values continue to evolve over time.