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American, Barnes, and National Colleges Collection

Barnes Medical College, ca. 1910
Barnes Medical College, ca. 1910
American, Barnes, and National Colleges Collection
Volume: .5 linear feet
Inclusive dates: 1881-1915
Collection code: PC059
Organization of the Collection
Container List
PDF Version

Historical Note

This collection consists of documents relating to two medical colleges that were founded in the late 19th century in St. Louis, American Medical College and Barnes Medical College. Although both were commercial ventures, in their early years the two promoted opposing medical philosophies: the former was founded in 1873 by practitioners of “eclectic” medicine, who emphasized the use of herbal remedies; the latter in 1892 by “regular” physicians. In the early 20th century, both colleges reformed and broadened their curriculums and established small private hospitals and dispensaries for the clinical training of their students. The two merged in 1911 in an attempt to sustain an institution of higher learning that could compete with Washington University and St. Louis University and, like them, offer undergraduate instruction. In 1912 the product of this merger was given a new name, National University of Arts and Sciences. The effort failed, however, and all its programs ceased by 1918. For more information about these defunct institutions, see the headings to individual series, which are listed below.

Provenance

The collection was assembled from documents drawn from collections of Washington University School of Medicine Library, the School of Dental Medicine Library, and the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society Library.

Access and Use

The collection is open and accessible for research. The materials are in public domain.

Scope and Content

Most of the documents are course catalogs or commencement programs which are arranged in short series according to academic name. There are only a few unpublished items in the collection, including the notes of a Barnes medical student (1899-1900) and several Barnes Dental College contracts (1908-1915 with related letter).

Organization of the Collection (Series List)

Series 1: American Medical Colleges Publications, 1881-1910

Series 2: Barnes Medical College or University Bulletins, 1900-1912

Series 3: Barnes University Commencement Ceremony Documents, 1905-1915

Series 4: Personal Items From the Barnes Teaching Institutions, 1900-1910

Series 5: Barnes Dental College Contracts and Related Letter, 1908-1915

Series 6: National University of Arts and Sciences Documents, 1913-1915

Container List

Series 1: American Medical College Publications, 1881-1910

American Medical College was organized in 1873. Its backers were promoters of “eclecticism,” which was an approach to therapeutics that emphasized herbal remedies. The first class graduated in 1874, when instruction was offered at 7th and Olive Streets. The college admitted two classes each subsequent year up to 1883, thereafter a single class annually but with a longer term of instruction. From 1878 until 1890 the institution was located at 310 North 11th Street in St. Louis, and then moved to 407 S. Jefferson Avenue. Some time around 1900 the faculty staffed what was billed as “the only eclectic hospital in the west,” Metropolitan Hospital, but this facility evidently did not remain open long. Flexner graded American along with several other Missouri medical schools as “utterly wretched” following his visit in 1909. In 1910 the college abandoned eclecticism and formally embraced “regular” medicine. The college purchased a new building and also opened a second hospital and a dispensary on Pine Street at Theresa Avenue. Again the clinical facilities were short-lived. In 1911 American merged with nearby Barnes University. The combined institution was renamed National University in 1912.

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Series 2: Barnes Medical College or University Bulletins 1900-1912

Barnes Medical College was organized in 1892 as a for-profit venture by a group of physicians and business leaders and named in honor of a recently deceased merchant, Robert A. Barnes (1808-1892). Barnes had bequeathed money for the construction of a hospital and it has been widely presumed that the educators’ choice of name was part of an attempt to secure an affiliation between the two institutions. If so, the attempt failed, for the trustees of the Robert A. Barnes estate chose instead to reinvest the assets and wait for a more favorable time to build Barnes Hospital. Ignoring the rebuff, the college trustees constructed a building of their own at 2645 Chestnut (later renamed Lawton) Street. The institution quickly became the largest medical college in the city (ca. 400 students) and its program outgrew the original structure. In 1896 a second building opened two blocks west, on Lawson at Garrison Avenue. In 1902 the objective of a college-related clinical facility was achieved with the establishment of Centenary Hospital and the Barnes Dispensary in a new adjoining building. The institution also operated a dental college (see below), a college of pharmacy, and a nurses’ training program.

At its height, the college enrolled approximately 600 students, and in 1904 changed its name to Barnes University. Despite these enhancements and changes of name, it became increasing apparent that the institution was financially unstable. The trustees offered their properties to the Curators of the University of Missouri in 1906 to house the state medical college. The negotiations lasted over a year and the Curators came close to accepting what seemed at first to be a generous offer. In the end, however, the state refused to pay the private venture’s debts and plans for the connection collapsed in 1908. During this same period, Barnes did absorb a smaller private school, the Hippocratean College of Medicine. Flexner severely criticized the Barnes institutions in 1909, however, a contemporary reviewer writing for the American Medical Association (Philip Skrainka, 1910) judged their quality “good.” One year following the merger with American Medical College in 1911 the names Barnes ceased to refer to medical instruction by this organization. For a brief period (1911-1914?) the Centenary facility was administered by Christian Hospital. From 1919 until 1936 the city of St. Louis used the building as a hospital for African American patients (City Hospital No. 2). The structures at Garrison and Lawton were demolished in 1960.

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Series 3: Barnes University Commencement Ceremony Documents, 1905-1915

Barnes University formed a dental department, the Barnes Dental College in 1905. It continued under this name even after the parent institution became known as National University in 1912. It ceased to function with the graduation of the class of 1916.

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Series 4: Personal Items from the Barnes Teaching Institutions, 1900-1910

This series brings together three very different artifacts reflecting personal experiences at the Barnes institutions. The first is a notebook with 18 leaves of handwritten notes by a student, George B.M. Erwin (b. 1862), dated 1899-1900. Judging from information inscribed on the notebook cover, he may have also have studied pharmacy at the Marion Sims College in 1895-1896. Following graduation from Barnes in 1900 Erwin is listed in the American Medical Directory as having practiced medicine in Granite City, Illinois until 1931. The item was a gift to the St. Louis Medical Society Library by M. H. Mantler of St. Louis. The second artifact is a booklet containing the “Reminiscences” of O[rril] LeGrand Suggett (b. 1873), an 1893 Barnes graduate who went on to teach urology at his alma mater. Suggett delivered this text at a “smoker” (an informal gathering) at the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1908, when it was thought that the agreement was close that would have merged the state medical school with Barnes. Following the failure of the Barnes-successor schools, Suggett moved his practice to Ashville, NC, where he remained active into the 1950s. The third is a picture postcard of the Barnes buildings sent in 1910 (a former patient to a friend?).

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Series 5: Barnes Dental College Contracts and Related Letter, 1908-1915

During most of its history, Barnes Dental College was operated by an executive committee of three dentists, George H. Owen, Otto J. Fruth, and D. E. Morrow, who entered into contracts on an annual basis with Barnes University or its successor, National University.

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Series 6: National University of Arts and Sciences Documents, 1913-1915

Exactly why the backers of Barnes University chose in 1912 to rename their institution National University of Arts and Sciences is unknown, although it is possible to speculate that whereas construction of the (totally unrelated) Barnes Hospital was by then underway, the hospital trustees perhaps asserted claims to exclusive rights to the Barnes name. National University established an undergraduate college in 1913, with courses initially offered in the medical building, then in 1915 moved to a structure at Grand and Delmar Boulevards. The institution attempted as well to operate a preparatory academy. After Christian Hospital withdrew from administration of the former Centenary structure, what was left of the inpatient facility was renamed National Hospital. Also in 1915, a merger was announced between the medical department and the St. Louis College of Physician and Surgeons, another financially beleaguered independent school. This arrangement failed, however, with Physicians and Surgeons withdrawing its faculty and students in 1916. That year witnessed the end of all the National departments but medicine. In 1918 the last medical class graduated and National’s clinical facilities ceased to treat patients.

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