Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.). Medical School
Biography
The Northwestern University Medical School began as the medical department of Lind University (later Lake Forest University) in 1859, located at Randolph and Market Streets in Chicago. In 1864, the medical department became an independent school, the Chicago Medical College, housed in a building at 22nd and State Streets. The founder of the College, Nathan Smith Davis, was an innovator in medical education who wanted to establish a three-year program that went beyond the traditional lecture-and-apprenticeship program. In 1870, the medical school affiliated with Northwestern, becoming the first professional school to be added to the liberal arts college in fulfillment of the founders' goal of creating a university. The school moved to a building at 26th Street and Prairie Avenue, where it remained until 1893. The Chicago Medical College became the Northwestern University Medical School in 1891. The Medical School moved again in 1893, to a Northwestern University plot of land on the twenty-four hundred block of South Dearborn, where it remained until Northwestern opened its Near North Side Chicago Campus in 1926.
Chicago Medical College founder Nathan Smith Davis served as the school's first dean from 1870, after its union with Northwestern, until 1898. Davis was followed by Franklin Seward Johnson (1898-1901). The third dean was Davis' son, Nathan Smith Davis, Jr. (1901-1907). The younger Davis' tenure as Dean was followed by those of Arthur Robin Edwards (1907-1916), Arthur Isaac Kendall (1916-1924), and Irving Samuel Cutler (1925-1941).
The medical school went through a number of changes in admission and graduation requirements during the first two decades of the twentieth century. In 1908 requirements for admission were raised to include one year of college, rather than just a high school diploma. In 1911, applicants were required to have completed two years of college. The American Medical Association itself did not require this level of education until 1918. Nathan Smith Davis, Jr., who favored more stringent requirements, clashed with his more traditional faculty over this issue and resigned his deanship in 1907.
In 1915, the medical school became one of six schools nationwide to require a fifth-year internship to earn the M.D. degree. These changes caused a drop in enrollment over the next few years, from 470 students in the 1909-1910 academic year to a low of 181 students in 1913-1914. Registration was up again to 413 students in 1919-1920 and, in the long run, the changes served to enhance the medical school's reputation.
For more information on the history of the Northwestern University Medical School, see Leslie B. Arey, Northwestern University Medical School, 1859-1979 (Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Medical School, 1979).
Found in 50 Collections and/or Records:
Medical School Senior Class Rosters
This series is comprised of Northwestern University Medical School senior class rosters for the period 1953-1969. Entries include class rank and grade point averages.
Medical School Special Course and Program Transcripts
These records comprise course and grade transcripts for Medical School graduate, special, physical therapy, and laboratory technology students.
Medical School Student Grade Records
This series of student grade records for Northwestern University's Medical School consists of twelve volumes that document the academic records of students pursuing the M.D. degree from 1948 through 1972.
Medical School Student Grade Records
This series contains Northwestern University Medical School student grade records for the academic years 1970/1971 to 1976/1977; it fills two boxes.
Medical School Student Grade Transcripts
Medical School Student Records
This series of Medical School student records fills sixteen boxes and spans the years from 1942 through 1984.
Medical School Student Records
Records of the Medical Specialty Training Program
This collection contains documents relating to the administration of the Medical Specialty Training Program (a division within Northwestern University's Medical School) for the years 1936-1951. It includes correspondence to and from program administrators, faculty and affiliated hospitals, some financial records generated by the program, minutes from committee meetings relating to the program and records of doctors enrolled in the program.
Medical Technology Program Master of Science Degree Theses
The series incorporates theses written in fulfillment of requirements for the master of science degree in medical technology. The theses date between 1973 and 1980.
Medical Technology Program Student Clinical Rotation Grade Records
This series is comprised of hand-written cards recording individual students' grades on the several clinical rotations required in the program.
Medical Technology Program Student Record Books
This series includes ledger entries of student grades for courses in Northwestern University's Medical Technology Program from 1932 to 1985.
Medical Technology Program Student Records
The records of the Medical Technology Program fill one box, and span the years 1964-1982. Included are Clinical Laboratory Rotation Attendance Reports, Checklists for Laboratory Rotation and Requests for Excused Absences. These materials were dated 1980-1981. Also included in the series are Order Forms for Medical Technology Pins (1970-1982) as well as Recommendations for Former Students in the Medical Technology Program (1964-1982).
Medical Technology Program Student Transcripts and Certificates
This series of Medical Technology Training Program student records fills two boxes and spans the years from 1923 to 1980. The series contains both transcripts and certificates of completion.
Medical Technology/Laboratory Technology Programs Students Admission Records
John M. Mitchell papers
Two notebooks of lecture notes kept by John M. Mitchell for William A. Locy's zoology course at Northwestern University (1911-12) and Isaac A. Abt's pediatrics course at Northwestern University Medical School (1915-16), and accompanying materials.
[Morton Medical Research Building cornerstone ceremony], 1954 June 15
J. B. Murphy papers
Collection of photographs, newspapers, correspondence, certificates, publications, and miscellaneous archival items belonging to and related to surgeon and Northwestern professor John Benjamin Murphy (1857-1916).
Northwestern Marches On, circa 1931
[Northwestern Marches On (extended cut)], circa 1931
Northwestern Medical School, Records of the Dean
These records of the deans of the Northwestern University Medical School date from 1956 through 1994. Including both incoming and outgoing correspondence, reports, and other forms of documentation, they are divided into five subseries: general files, committee files, departmental files, files relating to hospitals affiliated with the Medical School, and files pertaining to the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation.