Tulane University School of Medicine - T Wave Yearbook (New Orleans, LA)

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NEW ORLEANS The Crescent City

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Josephine Hutchinson Memorial Building 1893 ■ 1930 Although Flexnor found medical education at Tulane far from ideal, he ranked Tulane among the top three medical schools of the South. Tulane ' s high ranking was based on new and excellent laboratory facilities, the teaching faculty, the clinical availability of Charity Hospital, and the postgraduate instruction provided by the New Orleans Polyclinic. In 1913, Tulane reorganized the medical department to include the school of pharmacy, the school of dentistry, the school of medicine and the graduate school of medicine. In 1958, the division of hygiene and tropical medicine was established, whic h has since evolved into the school of public health and tropical medicine. The Josephine Hutchinson Memorial Building on Canal Street continued to house the clinical facilities of the medical school for nearly forty years. However, by the late 1920 ' s, the building had become crowded and obsolete. Funds were provided for a new medical unit to be built contiguous to Charity Hospital in what is now the present location of the medical school. When the building opened in December 1930, it was acclaimed as the best medical teaching unit in the South. The preclinical departments, unfortunately, were still located on the Uptown campus. Nonetheless, it was acknowledged that to provide the most enriching medical environment possible, all four years of medical education needed to be consolidated on one campus. It was not. however, until October of 1955 that a ten story addition to the Hutchinson Memorial Building enabled the second year departments to me moved downtown. This left only the first year departments on the Uptown campus. In 1963. further additions to the downtown facility were built to house the first years departments, finally enabling the medical school to reunify its entire four classes in one building for the first time since the early 1900 ' s. In 1969. the Tulane Medical Center was established, an organizational structure which broadened Tulane ' s commitments to medical education, research and patient care. The Tulane Medical Center Hospital and Clinic, the first such university hospital in Louisiana, was dedicated in October 1976. This 300 bed hospital enabled Tulane to consolidate a wide range of patient services in a tertiary care environment. In the few short years since its opening, it has become a major referral center for the region. Since its founding 151 years ago as The Medical College of Louisiana. Tulane has undergone many changes. Several buildings and locations have housed Tulane Medical School; Federal troops occupied the school during the Civil War. There have been periods of financial plenty, followed by periods of financial drought. Throughout the years, however, Tulane has always striven to improve its standards of medical education so that today it is ranked among the top medical schools in this country, and perhaps the world. From its meager beginnings in 1834 with 1 1 students. The Tulane University School of Medicine has gone on to confer a total of 12,733 medical degrees including those conferred on the graduates of the Class of 1987.

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s 80TI0MLESS As the mighty Mississippi winds its way to the Gulf of Mexico, it dips into a half moon at a point named New Or- leans. This crescent city founded nearly three hundred years ago has become home to us all for at least four impor- tant years of our lives. Here we have embraced the goals and ideals of our profession, here we have matured and been nurtured, here we were adopted by this warm and lovely city and its friend- ly people and here we have grown ac- customed to its special lagniappe - that something extra that sets it apart, n