University of North Dakota UND Scholarly Commons Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special UND Departmental Histories Collections 1983 School of Medicine and Department of Anatomy History D. L. Matthies University of North Dakota Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/departmental-histories Part of the Anatomy Commons, and the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Matthies, D. L., "School of Medicine and Department of Anatomy History" (1983). UND Departmental Histories. 110. https://commons.und.edu/departmental-histories/110 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in UND Departmental Histories by an authorized administrator of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SCIIQt)L iw i~t.'.~!I'':\'..·:·~~'h*')JNB INDEX 1. Introduction 2. Preface 3. Dedication 4. Sixty-year History - School of Medicine - 1883-1943 5. History of the Department of Anatomy and the School of Medicine to 1983 6. Appendix INTRODUCTION The enclosed history of the Department of Anatomy has a very close association with the history of the entire School of Medicine. The author, D.L. Matthies, Ph.D., has ably interwoven many aspects of the medical school history with that of the Department of Anatomy. For this reason the title of this document has been combined to indicate both the history of Anatomy together with many details of the history of the School of Medicine. This history and those of all Basic and Clinical Science Departments are on file at the Harley E. French Medical School Library and the E.B. Robinson special collections section of the Chester Fritz Library. , Robert G. Fischer, Ph.D. PREFACE This historical overview of the Department of Anatomy and the School of Medicine, of the University of North Dakota is being written as part of a commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the University. The cornerstone of the University's first building was placed October 2, 1883 while the region was still called the Dakota Territory and six years before North Dakota was to become a state. In anticipation of the subdivision of the Territory into states, however, the University was named University of North Dakota. Nineteen eighty­ three is not the centennial of the School of Medicine or College of Medicine as it was called at its founding, however. The founding occurred in 1905, making 1983 the 78th Anniversary of this division of the University. It would be not quite correct to assert that the 78th Anniversary of the School of Medicine was also the 78th Anniversary of the Department of Anatomy. It is evident that there were no separate departments when the School was founded in 1905 and, in fact, there was only one full-time faculty member and he was an Anatomist. The courses other than Anatomy were taught either by members of other non­ medical departments of the University or by part-time instructors who were also practicing physicians in the Grand Forks area. The term "department" is first encountered in the School of Medicine Bulletin for 1907 but it is not known whether this represented an actual administrative subdivision or not. Probably not, because there was still only one full-time faculty member, Archibald L. McDonald the Anatomist in the School of Medicine. Whatever the administrative organization of the new College of Medicine, 1905 was the first year of the teaching of Human Anatomy at UND and so we will call it the year of founding . I of the Department of Anatomy anyway. The history of an academic department in a university is, of course, the history of its personnel, faculty and support staff. It is the history of the people who manned the department and the mission of the department and how that mission was achieved by its personnel. The mission of the Department of Anatomy, we shall describe how the students trained and the vehicle of that training; the courses taught. Accordingly, this history of the Department of Anatomy will recount the names of as many as have been recorded of the faculty, staff, and students who have passed through its portals over the past 78 years. The courses taught, with a brief description of each, have been recorded to the extent possible. An interested reader will be able to trace the changes which occurred in course offerings in response to advances in technology and changes of interests in the national research and medical communities. Simply recording catalogue descriptions of courses taught has not been a very fascinating occupation, however desirable the recording of this information. In the process of doing so, however, this author has had many occasions to wish that he could go back in time and sit in the furthest, darkest comer of the many lecture rooms and laboratories in which these courses were taught. Only then could one convert these dry, factually oriented course announcements into a perception of what knowledge was presented, in what way, in those times, by the teachers of long ago. Only then, could one develop an accurate picture of the types of students who took up studies of medicine in North Dakota in those years and their interactions with course material and with the teachers who taught it. A rather thorough immersion for some months in such records as are available has ii suggested to this author that these past years must have been very colorful in terms of events surrounding the establishment of the "Prairie University" and its College of Medicine. The personalities involved, faculty, staff, students, and administrators must also have been relatively colorful as were many of the regents and legislators who were involved in those events. One can derive this sense from the Geiger History and one does not always have to read between the lines to do so. It is a pity that so much of this color has been lost for lack of contemporary recording of it and for the fact that University historians of the past had to make of their descriptions an academic exercise rather than a popular one. If it had to be one way or the other, however, then we can be grateful for their painstaking gathering of important factual material which will be of immense value in the future as the days about which they wrote recede into the misty horizons of history. For the lighter side of the story, we do not have to try very hard to imagine the political posturing and gesturing which must have occurred at each biennial meeting of the legislature as the subject of funding higher education in North Dakota was brought up; each of the political factions trying to appear more frugal and responsive to the frugality of the electorate than the other. Such scenes do not require much imagination for the custom persists to the present and may be appreciated at each biennial meeting of the legislature when the Board of Higher Education submits its budget for the following two years. One could guess that the legislative debates of earlier years were even more chromatic than now because they occurred with less scrutiny and reportage by news media than is the case at present. Various histories of North Dakota suggest that the participants in these debates were more personally colorful also. There are still a few similar people left in North Dakota politics but, alas, only a few. iii In whatever manners and styles the University and the legislatures managed over the years, they have built an institution of which the citizens of the state can be proud. There is an excellent liberal arts education available here at UND for those who will work to achieve it. And there are excellent resources in the graduate and professional schools also, for those who wish to take that route. As with all universities, however, it is still possible to spend four years here and come away four years older and little wiser. But this probably happens as an exception rather than the rule. The Department of Anatomy is only a small cog on a large university wheel but I will attempt to record as much information as possible considering sources available, in order that the functions of that small Anatomical cog can be placed in a perspective of the functions of the University as a whole. As one reads through the following, it is hoped that he will be able to sense the stresses to which the University and its departments have been subjected over the years. Enrollment and, hence, faculty rosters and course offerings have varied in response to an unusually large variety of circumstances, almost none of which were under the direct control of the University or the State of North Dakota. These stresses include those of the "growing pains" associated with its early days of founding at and just before the tum of the century. Such, of course, would be characteristic of any institution in the process of formation. Strongly affecting the floods and ebbs of UND fortunes were also the following influences: Factors affecting tax support and enrollment at the University: The price of wheat--always the price of wheat. The price of other crops to be sure, but always the price of wheat. iv Weather--good weather for agriculture meant high yields and therefore low prices. Bad weather meant high prices but not much to sell, e.g., the "drought" of the 1930's. Crop surpluses and Federal Government policy toward same, e.g., price supports, "soil bank" programs, foreign policy including embargoes, etc.