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

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The Richardson Memorial ► Building on the Uptown Campus merchant by the name of Paul Tulane bequeathed $ 1 .25 million for the endow- ment of a university. The state legislature then placed all the departments of the University of Louisiana under the newly named Tulane University of Louisiana. This donation enabled the school to once again assume front rank among American medical schools. By the early 1890s, rapid growth had established the need for new facilities. In 1893, a new building, the Richardson Memorial Building, was built on Canal Street. Although this was heralded as one of the best equipped medical buildings of its day, by 1907, further expansion was again needed. At that time Alexander Hutchinson bequeathed a large sum in memory of his wife Josephine. This fund was used to construct a new Richardson Building on land that was to become part of the Uptown Campus. This building was designed to house all the preclinical depart- ments. Facilities of the old Richardson Building were enlarged for clinical teaching purposes and renamed the Josephine Hutchinson Memorial Building. Meanwhile, the school was continually attempting to raise its standards. When it was initially founded, the school year lasted four months, and two full courses of lec- tures were required for graduation. Since only one set of courses existed, the students were expected to take the same ones twice. Admission to these lectures was gained with a ticket purchased for the price of $20. At that time, this was the sole means by which the professors were paid. Additional fees included a matriculation fee of $5, and a diploma fee of $30. Incidental expenses included the purchase of two arms for dissection at 25 cents each. The require- ment for admission was also rather simple, being only the ability to finance one ' s education. Gradually, the annual sessions were expan- ded from the original four months to four and one-half months in 1879, then to six months in 1893. It was also in that year that an educational qualification for admission Anatomy class in the Josephine ► Hutchinson Memorial Building. was first required of all students, namely a second grade teacher ' s certificate of a superintendent of education. Also, to fur- ther strengthen educational standards, attendance in three instead of two annual sessions was required. In 1899, this was lengthened to four obligatory sessions, and in later years, the length of these sessions was further increased until the curriculum evolved into what it is today. By the early 1 900s, it became apparent that a high degree of difference existed between the various medical schools in the country. In 1908, Abraham Flexner was selected by the Carnegie Foundation to undertake an analysis of the state of medical education. Flexner made a study of 155 American and Canadian medical schools, beginning at Tulane in the winter of 1908. He published his report in 1910, describing shocking and deplorable conditions in many places of medical education. This opened the eyes of the public and the medical community such that Flexner ' s report was, in effect, an obi- 16 T-Wave tuary for a great many medical colleges. Within a few years, almost half of the them had disappeared, for the most part because of the adverse publicity. Although Flexner found medical education at Tulane far from ideal, he ranked the school among the top three medical schools in 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 post-graduate 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. Today, only the latter two remain, the latter within the Graduate School. In 1958, the Division of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was established, which has since evolved into the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. The Josephine Hutchinson Memorial Building continued to house the clinical facilities of the School for nearly forty years. However, by the late 1920s, it had become crowded and obsolete. Funds were provided for a new medical unit, called the Hutchinson Memorial Building, to be built contiguous with Charity Hospital at what is now the present location of the School of Medicine. When it opened in December 1 930, the building was acclaimed as the best medical training unit in the South. The preclinical departments, unfortunately, were still located on the Uptown Campus. In order to to provide the most enriching medical environment possible, it was re- JL i M» m!SnM

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■4 Tulane University School of Medicine circa 1970. Tl e original Constitution of thie Medical College of Louisiana. JAa 4 t iA4, o. 4 students remained enrolled. Federal occupation of New Orleans forced the closure of the University later that year. In the fall of 1865, the school reopened its doors, enrolling 185 students. But the devastation left by the Civil War and the subsequent Reconstruction, placed the medical school in its most trying times, struggling financially for its very existence until 1884, when a wealthy New Orleans Having obtained legislative approval and financial funding to erect a building, the faculty immediately set about drawing up plans for a structure to house the Medical College. This building was estimated to cost $6,000 and was not completed until the end of 1843. In 1845, a Constitutional Con- vention directed that the Medical College of Louisiana become the Medical Depart- ment of the University of Louisiana. Two years later, additional funds were appro- priated to erect buildings for the new University, and the original building was returned to the state to be used by the ■newly established Law Department. A much larger building was constructed adja- cent to the original medical building for use by the Medical Department. At the time of its founding, the number of students attending the Medical College was a grand total of 11. From 1834 to 1859, this number grew to an impressive 276. This rocketed to 404, however, just prior to the War Between the States (or Civil War to those not from the South) that began in 1861, as political and sectional hostility prompted Southern students to abandon Northern colleges. Yet, when the conflict ensued, students joined the war effort in such numbers that, by 1862, only 94 ▲ The Class of 1910. SZSZ • Mofyjofjhe School of M dk:ln - ' I -Wave I C3

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cognized that all four years of education needed to be consolidated on one campus. It was not, however, until October 1955 that a ten-story addition to the Hutchinson Memorial Building enabled the Second- Year departments to be moved downtown. In 1963, further additions to the downtown facility were built to house the First- Year departments, allowing the School to reunify its four classes in one building for the first time since the early 1900s. The Tulane Medical Center was organized in 1969 to broaden Tulane ' s commitment 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 of 1976. This 300-bed hospital has enabled Tulane to consolidate a wide range of ser- vices in a tertiary-care environment. In the short period since its opening, it has be- come a major referral center for the region. ■4 Tulane Medical Center Hospital and Clinic. Hutctiinson Memorial Building circa 1930. Since its founding 154 years ago as the Medical College of Louisiana, the Tulane University School of Medicine has under- gone many changes, and not simply in name. Several buildings have come and gone, and while many different students and faculty members have occupied these buildings, so have federal troops during the Civil War. Though Tulane originally ca- tered to those mainly from the South, it now attracts students from all parts of the United States. From its meager beginnings in 1834 with 11 students, the Tulane Uni- versity School of Medicine has gone on to confer over 12,000 medical degrees, 160 of which are to be conferred on the Class of 1988. Throughout the years Tulane has always strived to improve its medical edu- cation, and is now ranked among the top medical schools in the country, and perhaps the world. ..something of which we can all be proud. M Former Entrance to Hutctiinson Clinic History of the Scfiool of Medicine l- CWe