Milwaukee Medical College
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1893-1907
E-Travel
1894 catalogue for Milwaukee Medical College is on M.C.W. Libraries Digital Collection. School profiles are included in the 1904 Polk Directory, the 1905 Centaur, and the 1910 Flexner Report. Portions of school history appear in Medical History of Milwaukee: 1834-1914 and Story of Marquette University. Some school activities are covered in the Milwaukee Medical Journal.
History
Trinity Hospital was founded in Milwaukee in 1887. The medical school grew out of that hospital, through the efforts of Dr. William H. Earles and Dr. William H. Neilson. The college opened in the fall of 1893 with 96 students. The 1894 catalog shows a three-year program leading to an M.D. degree and a three year dental program leading to a D.D.S. degree. By 1903-04 when the school was reviewed by the Centaur, the medical program had been increased to four years of eight months. Enrollment seemed to fluctuate. Polk lists the 1902-03 enrollment as 581 with 95 graduating. Centaur lists 148 students with 26 graduating. In 1910 Flexner shows 162.
Students gained clinical experience at the Milwaukee County Hospital and Milwaukee Hospital for the Insane as well as their own Trinity Hospital and the Free Dispensary connected to the school.
M.M.C. had a chapter of Alpha Kappa Kappa fraternity. The chapter report indicated that this fraternity sponsored the Junior Prom. The school also had a Van Leewenhok Society.
In the early years, M.M.C. had an intense rivalry with Wisconsin College of Physicians and Surgeons. Their charges and countercharges of lax standards for admission and graduation reached the Wisconsin Medical Association and the Wisconsin courts. The controversy ended with M.M.C. receiving a “Mild Censure” from the Medical Association.
By 1906 Marquette College had determined to become a university by adding a medical department. M.M.C. agreed to become affiliated with Marquette, the formal association beginning in fall 1907. M.M.C. continued in its building and course structure. In 1910 Flexner termed M.M.C. as only “nominally the Medical Department of Marquette University.” In 1913 Marquette purchased the school outright.
Bricks and Mortar
The college and Trinity Hospital were located at the corner of Ninth and Wells Streets in downtown Milwaukee. The large building was described as new. It feature three large amphitheaters, eight laboratories, ten clinic rooms, and a free dispensary, adjoining a 100-bed hospital.
Trinity Hospital was razed in the 1950's.
Milwaukee Medical College and Trinity Hospital. (1906-07 Catalogue, Courtesy of the Medical College of Wisconsin)
Sports
Team name: “Meds”
Colors: These appear to be Red and
perhaps Black or Gold
College Football Data Warehouse shows football results for M.M.C. as early as 1895, with a five-game schedule in 1897. Story of Marquette University notes in that at the time of the merger, Milwaukee Medical College had been “well represented on the gridiron.”
Through the years Carroll College appeared most often on a schedule that also often included Marquette, Beloit, Lawrence, and Oshkosh Normal. In 1901 the Meds were beaten by the likes of Wisconsin and Chicago.
Milwaukee Medical College football team (1906-07 Catalogue, Courtesy of the Medical College of Wisconsin)
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