The year 2002 marks the 100th anniversary of Wake Forest University School of Medicine.  To mark this occasion, the medical school erected a new statue of Bowman Gray (left), renovated the medical school entrance plaza, created a centennial exhibit and compiled a commemorative book. Throughout the year, there were a number of events planned to commemorate the centennial.  For more information about the medical school's centennial, see the Centennial web page. Brief History of the Medical School Centennial Commemorative Book Centennial Exhibit

Brief History of the Medical School

The roots of Wake Forest University School of Medicine can be traced to 1849, when an article appeared in the Biblical Recorder, the magazine of the N.C. Baptist State Convention, calling for a “Medical Department for Wake Forest College to be located in Raleigh,” the state capital. Wake Forest , a college dedicated largely to the training of ministers, was located in the small town of Wake Forest , about 17 miles north of Raleigh .

The college announced in 1886 a course of study “Preliminary to the Study of Medicine.” College President C.E. Taylor pushed the idea of a two-year medical school, which finally opened in the fall of 1902 with three professors and 13 students who paid tuition of $37.50 per term. Dr. Fred K. Cooke, a young surgeon and Tulane medical graduate, was named dean.

The medical school was from the outset intent on offering a high-quality education, and in 1904 it was approved by the American Medical Association. Of about a dozen medical schools that by then had opened in the state, only one other – the one at the University of North Carolina – had AMA approval.

Clinical teaching was conducted at Rex and St. Agnes hospitals in Raleigh, although most students continued their intensive clinical training after graduation at medical centers in other states.

In the late 1930s the trustees of the Bowman Gray Fund, which had been established through the will of a former chairman of the board of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., offered the college $750,000 to move the medical school to move to Winston-Salem, where it could join North Carolina Baptist Hospital as its clinical teaching facility. The move was made in 1941, and, following the new AMA requirements, the school expanded to four years. In 1943, the first graduating class received doctor of medicine degrees.

The School of Medicine has grown from 72 students and 37 teaching faculty in 1939 to more than 1,300 full-time students, more than 730 full-time faculty and more than 3,500 other employees today. The School’s budget has grown from less than $200,000 to more than $460 million today.

Back to the top.

Centennial Commemorative Book

The Legacy of Yesterday, the Promise of Tomorrow salutes the school’s centennial in over 100 pages of photographs drawn from the Dorothy Carpenter Medical Archives and the Department of Biomedical Communications. Through pictures of people, places, and events dating from 1902 in Wake Forest , North Carolina to 2002 in Winston-Salem , this book commemorates and honors the first 100 years of medicine at Wake Forest University. With over 400 photographs, the book also lists members of the school's administration since 1902, academic department chairs since 1941, student award recipients and medical alumni officers and lecturers.  The book sells for $32.00 and can be purchased in the medical school's bookstore on the ground floor of Reynolds Tower South. Borders and Reynolda Village bookstores also have copies for sale.

Back to the top.  

Centennial Exhibit

The Legacy and Promise – 100 Years of Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine captures a general history of the school through photographs, a wall mural and a timeline. Exhibit visitors can also imagine walking on the old campus in Wake Forest , North Carolina by studying the model and its map. The exhibit covers the years 1839 to 2001 through photographs, quotations and a timeline. Visitors can also reminisce through a world history timeline above the school’s history.

Perhaps the most eye-catching part of the exhibit is the wax teaching models, on loan from the Mütter Museum which is part of the University of Pennsylvania. The models are similar to what professors use here to teach medical students. Visitors will probably gasp at the site of a gouty toe or a head with hyperemia. The wall mural of two versions of the Caduceus is also interesting and there is an explanation about the significance of it. Like the Caduceus, the Hippocratic Oath is important to any doctor. The school’s version of the oath, called the Physician’s Oath, hangs near the omni-present Caduceus.

Back to the top.  

| Site Map | Suggestions | Back to Carpenter Library |