Our History

"We propose to Furnish a Building, Equipment, and Everything Necessary to Carry on the Work of A First-Class Medical School."

Founding Fathers to Trustees of Tufts College in 1885, The History of TUSM

In 1893, medical education was often found in proprietary schools with minimal bedside teaching and high attrition rates. No accreditation of the schools existed at that time. Consequently, several physicians, discontent with the training of physicians at that time, banded together to start Tufts Medical School. These physicians included:

• William R. Chipman, MD
  Professor of Surgery
• Henry W. Dudley, MD
  Professor of Pathology
• Walter L. Hall, MD
  Professor of Theory & Practice of Medicine
• John W. Johnson, MD
  Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology
• Albert Nott, MD
  Professor of Physiology
• Charles P. Thayer, MD
  Professor of Anatomy
• and Frank G. Wheatley, MD
  Professor of Materia Medica & Therapeutics

These founding fathers had been dissatisfied with the members and actions of the Governing Body for the Boston College of Physicians & Surgeons and regarded that school's standards as being too low. The laboratory and clinical work were also insufficient. Consequently, the seven founding fathers started Tufts College Medical School as part of Tufts College so as to encourage an academic program of higher standards.

Initially, Tufts Med was located in a three story building at 188 Boylston St., where the Four Seasons Hotel currently stands. The school was eventually moved a few blocks away in 1950 to its current location on Harrison Avenue.