Origins & History of Washington University School of Medicine

An impressive digitized version of an exhibit mounted at the Bernard Becker Medical Library in 1991 offers maps, illustrations, photographs, and faculty profiles beginning in the 1840's.  The original exhibit celebrated the centennial of the Washington University School of Medicine. 


While the education of physicians at Washington University began in 1891, the institution's medical department was the successor to St. Louis Medical College and Missouri Medical College. Images of both of these institutions, founded in the 1840s, are included.  St. Louis Medical College was also known as Pope’s College, after an early dean, Dr. Charles Alexander Pope.  Missouri Medical College was known as McDowell’s College in honor of its founder, Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell.


The relationships and interdependent ties of the Washington University School of Medicine with a number of area hospitals and other institutions is a particularly fascinating aspect of the exhibit.