Flashback : Dallas

Photos from the UT Southwestern Library (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Between 1900 and 1910, Dallas had ELEVEN medical schools, some of dubious distinction. One of the earliest and most successful was Dallas Medical College, an offshoot of Trinity University which was eventually merged with Baylor College of Medicine. It was located on Commerce St. near Akard, neighbors with a fire station and the City Hall (the Adolphus Hotel now occupies this site). Here are several photos from the Dallas Medical College archives, showing three typical medical students engaging in typical medical school hijinks.

Dallas Morning News, Feb. 3, 1901

The school’s first location on S. Ervay & Marilla (DMN, Feb. 3, 1901)

DMN, Sept. 27, 1903

Southern Mercury, Nov. 10, 1904

The official announcement of the merging, with details on how the two schools would function for the rest of the school year can be read here.

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Sources & Notes

Photographs from the UT Southwestern Library, here and here.

More on early medical schools in Texas, with several paragraphs on Dallas, can be found in “Training the Healers” by Vernie A. Stembridge, M.D., an article from the May, 1999 issue of Heritage magazine (a publication of the Texas Historical Foundation) which can be read here.

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Copyright © 2014 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.