1870s
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1874
The University of Nashville's Medical School is incorporated into Vanderbilt University, which had been founded in 1873. -
1874-1875
Dr. Thomas Menees is the first Dean of the combined medical departments of the University of Nashville and Vanderbilt University, a post which he held from 1874 to 1895. -
1875
The first degree awarded by Vanderbilt University is a medical degree, awarded to James McKissick More.
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1875
Vanderbilt ’s first valedictorian, Dr. William Campbell, addressed a joint graduation ceremony with the University of Nashville. Pictured: Campbell's valedictory address.Original located in the History of Medicine Collections.
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1875
Beginning in 1875, Vanderbilt and the University of Nashville share the Nashville Medical College Hospital, which was built as a new addition to the medical department building on Market Street (now 2nd Avenue).
1890s
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1895
Vanderbilt moves from the shared University of Nashville medical department to its new medical school at 5th Ave and Elm Street near downtown Nashville.Pictured: A postcard produced by Ciba Pharmaceuticals to celebrate the opening of the 5th and Elm building in 1895. With the modernization of medical education and practice, drug companies were beginning to find their markets. History of Medicine Collection.
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1895
In 1895, Vanderbilt School of Medicine separates from its joint programming with the University of Nashville. Dr. William Dudley serves as Vanderbilt University’s first dean of the reorganized School of Medicine, from 1895-1912.
1900s
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1910
Dean Lucius Burch (1914-1920). -
1918
Vanderbilt Hospital Unit S serves in World War I in Nevers, France, through 1919. Pictured: Officers Mess in Nevers, Vanderbilt camp hospital.
1920s
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1920
After serving in influential roles at Cornell and Washington University, Dr. G. Canby Robinson joins Vanderbilt as chair of the Department of Medicine and dean of the School of Medicine in 1920 (1920-1928). -
1925
The School of Medicine relocates to a new building on the Vanderbilt main campus that houses the school, the hospital, outpatient clinics, laboratories, and a library. The building survives today as Medical Center North. -
1920
Litterer Laboratory is the last remaining structure of the 5th and Elm medical campus. The building is now home to Templeton Academy, a private preparatory school. -
1920
Christmas on the ward at 5th and Elm.
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1925
The School of Medicine relocates to a new building on the Vanderbilt main campus that houses the school, the hospital, outpatient clinics, laboratory and library. This building is now incorporated into the structure known as Medical Center North.
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1928
Dean: Waller S. Leathers (1928-1945). -
1929
Vanderbilt School of Medicine graduates the first class to complete its education on the Vanderbilt campus after the school of medicine moved from downtown Nashville.
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1929
Dr. Louise Allen Beard, left, and Dr. Thelma Byrd Bowie, right, were the first two women to graduate from Vanderbilt Medical School, in 1929.
1930s
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1930
Viven Thomas begins work as a surgical research assistant with Dr. Alfred Blalock at Vanderbilt, studying the effects of surgical shock. After moving to Johns Hopkins in 1941, Blalock and Thomas worked with Dr. Helen Taussig to apply their findings to a new surgical therapy for tetralogy of Fallot, or blue baby syndrome.
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1931
Dr. Ernest William Goodpasture, Chair and Professor of Pathology, devised a method of virus culture that provided an enormous stimulation to virology. Dr. Goodpasture and his team used the modified dentist drill, pictured at right (original is in the History of Medicine Collections) to cut small windows in chicken eggs as part of their vaccine research.
In collaboration with Alice Woodruff, Goodpasture devised using "a fertile egg" for viral growth to devleop vaccines. Their first success was with fowl pox, but within a year they had also grown both cowpox and coldsore viruses. Within a few years Goodpasture’s technique had made possible the production of vaccines against yellow fever by Max Theiler and influenza by Thomas Francis.
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1938
In the medical faculty dining room, left to right: Hugh Morgan, Tinsley Harrison, Dean William Leathers, and Chancellor Oliver Carmichael.
1940s
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1940
Dr. Ernest William Goodpasture, Chair and Professor of Pathology (and later VUSM Dean), devises a method of virus culture that provides an enormous stimulation to virology.
Dr. Goodpasture and his team used a modified dentist drill, to cut small windows in chicken eggs as part of their vaccine research.
In collaboration with Alice Woodruff, Goodpasture devises using "a fertile egg" for viral growth to develop vaccines. Their first success was with fowl pox, but within a year they had also grown both cowpox and cold sore viruses. Within a few years Goodpasture’s technique had made possible the production of vaccines against yellow fever by Max Theiler and influenza by Thomas Francis.
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1941
Members of the Vanderbilt 300th General Hospital Unit prepare to leave for duty on the Italian front in World War II. -
1945
Dean: Dr. Ernest Goodpasture (1945-1950).
1950s
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1951
An unidentified therapist and child using equipment to aid with speech and hearing. Circa 1960s, courtesy of Vanderbilt University Archives. Vanderbilt establishes the Graduate Program in Hearing and Speech Sciences. It is currently the largest professional degree program other than the MD in the School of Medicine, and one of the largest programs at Vanderbilt University.
The Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences offers academic coursework and clinical practicum leading to degrees and certification/licensure in three areas of clinical practice:
- Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology (M.S.-SLP),
- Master in Education of the Deaf (MDE)
- Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.)
The Doctor of Audiology program and the Master of Science in Speech-Pathology program are ranked #1 by U.S. News and World Report.
1960s
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1961
Dr. Mildred Stahlman founds the division of
Neonatology and begins the Vanderbilt
NICU, the first in the nation to make use of
respiratory therapy for infants with damaged
lungs. -
1962
The Round Wing opens.
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1963
Dean Randolph Batson (1963-1972) -
1963
A crane is seen in the background, as part of the construction of the 1964 addition to Medical Center North. That addition has since been swallowed by MRB III, a biomedical sciences research building.
1970s
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1970
Levi Watkins poses for his first-year medical student photo in 1966. Levi Watkins becomes the first African American to graduate from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Dr. Hopkins completed his surgical internship at Johns Hopkins, where he was the hospital's first African American chief resident in cardiac surgery.
After completing his residency, Dr. Watkins joined the full-time faculty in cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins. In February 1980, he performed the world’s first implantation of the automatic implantable defibrillator in a patient. He remained on the faculty at Hopkins until his retirement in 2013.
In 2008, Dr. Watkins was named Vanderbilt University’s Distinguished Alumnus. He was previously honored with the Vanderbilt Medal of Honor for outstanding medical school alumnus in 1998. He served on the University’s Board of Trust from 2003 to 2013 and is remembered and honored each year at Vanderbilt by the Levi Watkins Jr., M.D., Lecture on Diversity in Medical Education.
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1971
A professor of physiology at Vanderbilt
University Medical Center from 1963 to
1973, Earl W. Sutherland Jr. was the
first scientist from a southern university
to win a Nobel Prize in physiology and
medicine. Many observers considered
the conferring of the prize on Sutherland
in 1971 a sign of the rise of the South as
a pacesetter in medical research,
education, and clinical service. -
1978
The Dean of Deans: John Chapman (1975-2001) -
1977
Light Hall opens. -
1978
The medical campus continues to grow as the new hospital building takes shape.
1980s
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1986
Dr. Stanley Cohen receives the Nobel Prize,
sharing the award with Dr. Rita
Levi-Montalcini of Italy for their discovery of
epidermal growth factor.
1990s
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1991
Annette Eskind breaks ground for the Eskind Biomedical Library, October 29, 1991. Credit: Mary Teloh.
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1994
The Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library opens.
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1996
The first class of VUSM's Master of Public Health program begins matriculation, to later graduate in 1998. The MPH program encompasses three tracks: Global Health, Epidemiology and Health Policy.
Left: As part of the public health practicum, MPH student Jay Bala (class of 2014) worked at the Macha Research Trust in Zambia, collecting data from rural health centers for an epidemiological surveillance project. From the MPH Flickr collection.
2000 - present
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2000
Groundbreaking for the new Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. -
2001
Dean: Steven Gabbe (2001-2008)
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2008
Dean: Jeffrey Balser (2008-present) -
2016
Vanderbilt University officially separates from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Eskind Biomedical Library reopens in 2018 as the home of VUSM's administrative offices and classrooms.
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2019
VUSM enrolls the first class of its Mast
er of Genetic Counseling program. This cohort graduated in 2021. -
2023
The School of Medicine adds its eleventh professional degree program, the Master of Imaging Science. The first class graduated in August 2024.
