At the time of its founding, the Medical Institution at Geneva College was the seventh medical school established in New York State. Today, the medical school lives on as the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University, the second oldest surviving medical school in New York, behind Columbia University College of Medicine, and the sixteenth oldest surviving medical school in North America.;xNLx;;xNLx;This exhibition is an abbreviated history of Upstate Medical University from its beginnings as Geneva Medical College through the present day. It features information on key events, new buildings, administration, major curriculum and program changes and tracks the various names assigned to the University over the years. ;xNLx;
Constructed in 1821, Geneva Hall was built of limestone by masons Levi Judd and John Huddleston. As the oldest standing academic building in Western New York, the Hall originally housed all the offices, chapel, library, and students rooms of Geneva College, including the classrooms used by the new medical department from 1834 until 1836. Geneva Hall remained an essential part of Geneva College, now Hobart College, and is still used today as a dormitory.
Edward Cutbush founds the Medical Institution at Geneva College in 1834 and serves as the first Dean. Cutbush received his medical degree from School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania in 1794. In 1799 he joined the U.S. Navy as a surgeon and serviced in the Tripolitan War (1801-1805). He also directed the naval hospital during the War of 1812. From 1825 until 1827, he lectured as a Professor of Chemistry in the Columbia University Medical Department. When ordered to report for duty as a surgeon on board a ship he had sailed on 30 years prior, Cutbush resigned from the navy and took up a position as Professor of Chemistry at Geneva College in 1829. Since the Fairfield Medical College was over a hundred miles away, Cutbush urged officials at Geneva College to create a medical school to serve the local population. After serving as dean for five years, Cutbush retired in 1839 and later died on June 23, 1843.
The medical school opens as part of Geneva College, with classes held in the Geneva Hall building. The medical school reaches peak enrollment from 1840-1850. In 1841, the Geneva Medical College, as it was known colloquially, and the Albany Medical College absorb parts of the defunct Fairfield Medical College, allowing Geneva Medical College to take on more faculty and offer more classes for growing enrollment of nearly 200 students a year. At the time of its founding, the Medical Institution at Geneva College is the seventh medical school in New York; today it continues as the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University, the second oldest surviving medical school in New York behind Columbia University College of Medicine and the sixteenth oldest surviving medical school in North America.
The one-year program for the newly established Medical Institution includes Anatomy, Botany, Chemistry, Institutes and Practices of Medicine, Materia Medica, Medical Jurisprudence, Obsterics, Pharmacy, Physiology, and Principles and Practice of Surgery.
Six medical professors, including the founder Edward Cutbush himself, lead the courses. Within a year, the first class of six students had received their medical degrees.
The Middle Building was the first building constructed for the Medical Institution of Geneva College and housed medical school classes for five years. When the medical college grew between 1840 and 1850, a new building was constructed to meet the medical school's needs; the middle building then housed the library, recitation rooms, and the President's Office for Geneva College. The building burned down in 1885, long after the medical school was sold to Syracuse University.
Charles B. Coventry is appointed dean following Edward Cutbush Jr. Coventry only serves as dean for a year. In 1825, Coventry graduated with his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Western New York (later known as Fairfield Medical College). From 1828 until 1831, he lectured at the Berkshire Medical College as a Professor of Materia Medica and Obstetrics. After developing a large and well-known practice in Utica, he accepted a position as Professor of Obstetrics and Medical Jurisprudence at Geneva Medical College in 1839. Resigning from Geneva Medical College in 1846, he was appointed Chair of Physiology and Medical Jurisprudence at the recently established Medical University of Buffalo.
Andrew Boardman presents "An Essay on the Means of Improving Medical Education and Elevating Medical Character" to the faculty of Geneva Medical College as his senior thesis. Boardman calls into question many of the practices of medical education, including the lack of clinical teaching available at the college. The faculty rebuke his criticisms and Boardman, along with Surgeon David L. Rogers, the only faculty member who agreed with the essay's charges, leaves the College.
John Delamater joins the faculty as an instructor for General Pathology. When Fairfield Medical College was dissolved at the end of the 1839 to 1840 school session, Delamater was one of the former faculty who found employment at Geneva Medical College.
Thomas Spencer is appointed dean following Charles B. Coventry. Graduating with his medical degree from Fairfield College of Medicine in 1820, he became a well-known phsyician and surgeon in private practice in the village of Canastota. In 1834, Spencer was appointed Chair of Theory and Practice of Medicine at the newly created Medical Institution of Geneva College. In 1847, Spencer was appointed Surgeon of the Tenth Regiment of New York and New Jersey Volunteers and served for a year and a half.
The medical school expanded to a new building on the west side of South Main Street in order to better accommodate their growing class sizes. A $15,000 state grant provided the funding for the construction of the building, which remained in use until 1872 when decreasing enrollment and increasing financial difficulties led to the dissolution of the Geneva Medical College. The building burned down in 1877.
James Webster is appointed dean of the Geneva Medical College following Thomas Spencer. In 1824, Webster graduated from the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He studied privately under Dr. John D. Goodman and later succeeded him as a teacher of Anatomy. After moving to New York City in 1835, Webster cultivated a reputation as a surgeon who treated diseases of the eye and ear. He was appointed Professor of Anatomy at Geneva College of Medicine in 1842 and quickly became one of the most prominet surgeons in upstate New York. Starting in 1846, he served as Dean of the Geneva Medical College until 1850, when he resigned from Geneva and was elected the Chair of Anatomy at the University of Buffalo medical school.
Austin Flint joins the faculty as instructor for Theory and Practice of Medicine. In 1846, Flint established the Department of Medicine at the University of Buffalo, which drew students and faculty from Geneva Medical College with its' clinical programs.
Charles A. Lee is appointed Dean of the Geneva Medical College following James Webster. He also serves as a Professor of Materia Medica and General Pathology for the medical school.
At her graduation from Geneva Medical College, Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first female in the United States to earn an M.D. and the first to appear in the U.K. Medical Register. In 1847, Blackwell applied to numerous medical school in Philadelphia, New York City, and in the rural countryside, but received only one acceptance letter. Because her application included a reference from a well-known Philadelphia physician, Dr. Joseph Warrington, the Geneva faculty had decided not to refuse Blackwell outright, but put the question of her admittance to the students. On a whim, the students voted unanimously to allow women to attend Geneva Medical College. During her time at Geneva, Blackwell was treated carefully but was generally accepted in the classroom. After graduating in 1849, she moved to Paris to study surgery. When a medical accident in 1851 left her blind in one eye, she moved back to New York to practice general medicine. In 1853 she founded her own dispensary and by 1857 she was supervising The New York Infirmary for Women and Children. The hospital was the first to be staffed entirely by women in the medical and surgical departments and the first to establish a school of nursing. In 1865, Blackwell established a women's medical college in connection with the hospital.
When Geneva College changes its name to Hobart Free College in 1852, the medical school adopts the name it has been known by unofficially for decades, Geneva Medical College. In 1860, Hobart Free College is shortened to Hobart College; today the school is known as Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Following the establishment of a medical school at the University of Buffalo in 1852, the medical school goes into decline. In 1853, no students register for medicine at all and the school is temporarily closed for a year. New faculty and students return in 1854, but enrollment continues to decrease to less than 30 students a year during the 1860s and expenses become unmanageable.
John Towler is appointed Dean of the Geneva Medical College in 1855. Towler immigrated from England to the United States and taught at Lima Seminary until he was appointed professor of modern languages at Hobart College in 1852. Throughout his time at Hobart, Towler taught modern language and literature, mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, toxicology, medical jurisprudence, anatomy, pharmacy, and civil engineering. In 1855, he received his medical degree from Geneva Medical College and served as its zdean from 1855 until 1872. When Hobart College dissolved the medical college in 1872 due to falling enrollment and finacial insolvency, Towler purchased the medical library and laboratory materials of the school and donated them to Syracuse University under the condition that Syracuse open an accredited medical college.
Hiram Newton Eastman joins the faculty as instructor for Practice of Medicine. He graduated with his medical degree from the Vermont Academy of Medicine in 1844. He served as a physician in Candor and Oswego, NY before moving to Geneva as an instructor. In 1870, he left Geneva Medical College to lecture on Materia Medica at the new medical school at the University of Buffalo.
Nelson Nivison joins the faculty as instructor for Microscopic Anatomy. He received his medical degree from Fairfield Medical College. From 1839 until 1863, he practiced medicine in various towns in upstate New York before lecturing as a professor at Geneva Medical College. Nivison serves as a Professor of Physiology for Syracuse University College of Medicine from 1872 until 1887.
Hiram Newton Eastman adds a class on Diseases of Women and Children for the curriculum of Geneva Medical College.
Charles Everts Rider joins the faculty as instructor for Ophthalmology. Rider received his medical degree from the University of Vermont in 1863. In 1866, he received an honorary Masters degree from the University of Rochester. Rider taught for two years at the Geneva Medical College before moving with the relocated medical school to Syracuse where he served as a Professor of Ophthalmology and Diseases of the Ear.
After a period of prosperity in the 1840s, the Medical College begins to struggle when the University of Buffalo establishes a medical school. Unlike medical schools in larger cities, where partnerships with hospitals are prevalent, Geneva Medical College is unable to provide clinical experience for its students. Even faculty members defect to the more robust program at Buffalo. When falling enrollment and financial insolvency make the medical school unsustainable, Hobart College closes Geneva Medical College in 1871 and sells the medical library and anatomical museum to Dean John Towler, MD.
John Towler M.D., last Dean of the Geneva Medical College, donates the medical library and the anatomical museum of Geneva Medical College to Syracuse University under the condition that they open an accredited medical college. From 1871 to 1875, the new medical college is known as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Syracuse University.
In the same year Hobart College closes the Geneva College of Medicine, Towler offers to donate the medical library and equipment of the medical school to Syracuse University, with the understanding that they will open a medical college compliant with the new American Medical Association standards. Originally, this College of Physicians and Surgeons at Syracuse University operated nearly autonomously from Syracuse University. Faculty pooled their resources to rent classroom space and were reimbursed solely by the medical school's tuition costs.
Frederick Hyde is appointed Dean of the Syracuse University College of Medicine following John Towler. Hyde completed an apprenticeship and received his official license to practice medicine in 1833 after his application to the Cortland County Medical Censors certified that he was competent, of good character, and over the age of 21. Hyde entered Fairfield Medical College and graduated with a medical degree in 1836. The practice he shared with Miles Goodyear became renowned and he traveled widely in upstate New York, performing operations and treating disease. In 1854 he accepted a position as Chair of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women at Geneva Medical College. When Hobart College dissolved the medical institution, Hyde assisted Dean Towler in the negotiations with SU for opening the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Syracuse University. In 1872 Hyde became the first dean of this new medical school at Syracuse. During his tenure Hyde adopted the three-year graded program of medical study and cultivated the relationship between the College of Medicine and the administration of Syracuse University.
In 1872 classes for the newly established College of Physicians and Surgeons at Syracuse University are held in rooms rented at the cost of $400 a year. In these early years, Syracuse University has very little to do with funding the medical school and the fees paid by the medical students barely covered the rental of the classrooms, let alone the salaries of the faculty members. The medical school remained at this location at Clinton Block until 1875.
For the first class of College of Physicians and Surgeons at Syracuse University, the medical degree is a three year program of study. In the first year, students take classes in anatomy, physiology, and general chemistry. Second Year students study medical chemistry, materia medica (later pharmacology), pathological anatomy, theory and practice of medicine, clinical medicine, and surgery. By the Third Year, students take classes in pathological anatomy, therapeutics, obstetrics, medical jurisprudence, theory and practice of medicine, clinical medicine, and surgery. In order to graduate, students must pass examinations in each subject and create a thesis project. Although their program of study was different, former Geneva Medical College students are allowed to complete their degrees at the new school.
To address the lack of clinical experience that plagued the old Geneva Medical College, the medical faculty of Syracuse University College of Medicine partner with St. Joseph's Hospital and the House of the Good Shepherd to assure students adequate experience in a clinical setting. This clinical work allows students to gain crucial experience working with doctors and patients. Certain classes were taught exclusively in the wards of these two hospitals.
In 1875, the name of the medical school changes from College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Syracuse University to Syracuse University College of Medicine. The medical school exists under this name until the State University of New York (SUNY) acquires it in 1950.
After three years in the rooms rented in Clinton Block the medical school relocates to a remodeled carriage factory on Orange Street. The building is purchased and refurbished by the medical faculty to meet the growing needs of the school. Within two years, a pathology lab, chemistry lab, and dispensary stocked by local pharmacies is added to the building.
Syracuse College of Medicine opens their first college dispensary inside the new medical college building on Orange Street. Students and faculty work at the small public dispensary and local pharmacists contribute drugs for the opening. Over 250 prescriptions are filled the first year; distribution increases to more than 720 prescriptions in the second year of operation.
Sarah Marinda Loguen, daughter of abolitionist Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen, becomes the first African-American woman to graduate from the Syracuse University College of Medicine with an MD. She is the fourth African American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.
The first Dental Surgery course is offered through the Syracuse University College of Medicine.
Professor Henry Leopold Elsner M.D. updates the laboratory facilities at Syracuse University College of Medicine using his knowledge of German methods of medical education. Elsner, who completed his medical education at Columbia in 1877, took an additional year of study in Vienna and Berline, where he was privy to the then state-of-the-art German model. Syracuse is the second American medical school, after Johns Hopkins, to upgrade to the German model, which placed greater emphasis on laboratory training and less on lecture.
Henry Darwin Didama is appointed Dean of the Syracuse University College of Medicine following Frederick Hyde. He received his medical degree from Albany Medical College in 1846. From 1846 until 1851, he practiced as a physician in Romulus, NY before moving to Syracuse. In 1872, he joined the faculty of the Syracuse University College of Medicine as Professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine, and Clinical Medicine.
Syracuse University begins to financially support the College of Medicine with the legal transfer of College of Medicine property to the University in 1888. The University agrees to annually contribute $500 to the medical program, but all other financial responsibilities remain with the faculty. When Syracuse University first established the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the medical school operated autonomously from the University. This merger provides financial stability to the school and places the focus on improving the curriculum and facilities.
The College of Medicine Faculty unanimously agree to extend the period of medical instruction from three to four years. Trends in medical education urge expansion to a four year program in order to extend clinical teaching experience. The extended curriculum went into effect for students entering in 1896.
The Department of Pathology adds a new Bacteriology Program. Students who enrolled in Bacteriology were required to own their own microscope.
When the remodeled carriage factory used by the medical school since 1875 begins to deteriorate, the Syracuse University College of Medicine forms a fundraising committee, which raises $40,000 for the construction of a new building. Classes are held temporarily at St. Joseph's Hospital as the old carriage factory is leveled and construction begun. Within a year, a new building is completed at South McBride Street at a final cost of $85,000. The design includes three large lecture halls, private offices, separate study areas for male and female students, a library that served as a faculty lounge, and updated laboratories for anatomy, pathology, bacteriology, histology, physiology, and chemistry.
The first course in Physical Diagnosis is taught by William Dewey Alsever M.D. and Israel Harris Levy. Alsever received his medical degree from Syracuse University College of Medicine in 1900. He was serving as Assistant in Medicine to the Hospital of the Good Shepherd. Levy also worked as a Lecturer on Histology for Syracuse University from 1896 until 1903.
Gaylord P. Clark received his medical degree from Syracuse University College of Medicine in 1880 and a year later was named Professor of Anatomy at the school. He held this position until 1892 when he became the chairman of Physiology. Upon the death of Henry Darwin Didama in 1905, Clark is named Dean of the College of Medicine. He promotes research and laboratory work throughout his tenure.
John L. Heffron M.D. Ph.D. is appointed Dean of the Syracuse University College of Medicine in 1907, following Gaylord P. Clark. After graduating from the Syracuse University College of Medicine in 1881, Heffron opened a private practice and served as a faculty member. He was a Professor of Histology in 1885, Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in 1887, and Professor of Clinical Medicine in 1895. In 1915, Dean Heffron conceives of a medical center made up of local hospitals, the medical college building, and the newly-relocated Syracuse Free Dispensary. All of these facilities were located in close proximity to each other in the heart of the Syracuse downtown. Two years after he stepped down as Dean, Heffron died from injuries sustained after being hit by an automobile on September 24, 1924.
The Syracuse University College of Medicine establishes a program of study combining an arts and sciences bachelor degree with a medical doctorate over the course of six years.
In 1904 the American Medical Association created the Council on Medical Education (CME) with the purpose of restructuring medical education in the US. In 1908 the CME asked the Carnegie Foundation to conduct a survey on medical education in America and it was Abraham Flexner who carried out the work. He visited all 155 medical schools in operation and found that they all differed widely in curricula, assessment of students, and requirements for admission and graduation. The Flexner Report (also known as Carnegie Foundation Bulletin Number Four), issued in 1910, lead to the closing or merging of almost half the medical colleges in the country because they could not meet the more rigorous standards. Despite its financial difficulties, the Syracuse University College of Medicine met these standards thanks to its four year program which heavily emphasized clinical training.
The installation of a new Einthoven String Galvanometer, including the addition of a large stabilizing concrete block below the foundation, is overseen by Dr. Knowlton of the Physiology Department. The Galvanometer is used for clinical electrocardiography.
In 1914 the Syracuse Free Dispensary opened in conjunction with the City Health Department Clinic at the new Fayette Street building. The cornerstone had been laid in 1912. This new building was the most recent iteration of the dispensary opened by the Syracuse University College of Medicine in 1876, which lived in their remodeled carriage factory building. This small public dispensary was staffed by students and faculty and relied on medicine donated by local pharmacies. When the new medical college building was constructed in 1896, the Syracuse Free Dispensary moved first to a house at 407 South Warren Street and then to the slightly larger house at 506 South Warren Street, but neither building had been large enough to meet the growing demand.
Syracuse University takes over the Hospital of the Good Shepherd in 1915. Since numerous buildings downtown, including this recent addition of Hospital of the Good Shepherd, are now owned by Syracuse University and staffed by students, faculty and staff of the College of Medicine, Dean Heffron proposes the development of a unified medical center. The proposed medical center campus would encompass the local hospitals, clinics and the medical college buildings in close proximity and provide more comprehensive medical care.
O.W.H. Mitchell taught the first Public Health Course at the Syracuse College of Medicine. Mitchell also served as the director of the Syracuse City Laboratory and supported the study of pneumonia through the Syracuse Bacteriological Laboratory.
Edward Van Duyn M.D., a graduate of the Syracuse College of Medicine, organized the Syracuse Medical Unit as soon as the United States entered World War I. The unit trained at Camp McPherson for three months before they were mobilized on December 12, 1917 and departed for France on February 26, 1918. Estimates of recruits and active service members in 1918 posited that approximately 27% of the alumni of the College of Medicine entered military service during the First World War. Edward’s father, John Van Duyn M.D., had been a physician's intern during the civil war at the age of 18 and at the age of 73 serves as a volunteer surgeon at the hospital in St. Valery-eu-Caux in Normandy, France.
The medical unit mustered in Syracuse during WWI was known as Unit G Base Hospital No. 31 and was stationed at Contrexeville, France. Some alumni of the Syracuse College of Medicine move to the front as part of an ambulance unit. The College of Medicine asks the faculty serving in France to consider taking six months for the war effort and six months to teach the next generation of Syracuse University medical students; but the surgeons and physicians of Unit G say they will not return until the war is won and urge their peers and fellow faculty to join them in the fight. The war ends in November 1918 and the men of Edward Van Duyn's unit return from France the following April.
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