"The Literature of Prescription: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and 'The Yellow Wall-Paper,'" a National Library of Medicine (NLM) traveling exhibition that examines the role of gender in the perception and medical treatment of mental illness, will be on display at Wayne State's Shiffman Medical Library from Nov. 21 to Dec. 28.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was an American writer, artist, lecturer and advocate for women's rights who lived at a time when the medical profession's ideas about female weakness and social conventions restricted women's professional, creative and intellectual pursuits.

Gilman, who was discouraged from pursuing a career to preserve her health, rejected these ideas in a terrifying short story titled "The Yellow Wall-Paper;" a tale of a young woman driven mad by the "rest cure" advocated by the medical profession. The famous story served as an indictment of the medical profession and the social conventions restricting women's professional and creative opportunities. 

The exhibition was developed and produced by the NLM, National Institutes of Health.

To learn more about "The Yellow Wall-Paper" exhibition, including educational resources, visit http://guides.lib.wayne.edu/yellowwallpaper.

For more information on the exhibition at Wayne State, contact LaVentra Ellis-Danquah at (313) 577-9083 or laventra@wayne.edu.

Photo: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Wayne State University Library System consists of the university's six libraries: The David Adamany Undergraduate Library, the Purdy/Kresge Library, the Shiffman Medical Library, the Arthur Neef Law Library, the Science and Engineering Library, and the Reuther Library and the School of Library and Information Science.   

Wayne State University is a premier urban research university offering more than 370 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 29,000 students.