Today marks the 391st anniversary of the founding of the state of Maryland. The Medical & Chirurgical Faculty is proud to have been a part of Maryland for 225 of those years.
If you're interested in learning about the founding of MedChi in 1799, please click here. As long as there is a State of Maryland, there will be a Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland.Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Monday, March 24, 2025
Taylor Manor Hospital
Over the years, I've presented a lecture entitled "Historic Hospitals of Baltimore." It features many of the hospitals that made Baltimore the medical mecca that it is now. However, all of the hospitals that I've featured are from before or just after 1900.
But there is a hospital that's always been along the edge of my radar, and I had a chance to visit it last week. The property has been a hospital since the early 1900s and most recently, it was part of the Sheppard Pratt system. You can read its history in great detail here.
In the 1950s or so, Taylor Manor was purchased by a family who ran a jewelry store in the near-by village of Ellicott City. It was one of only a dozen or so private psychiatric hospitals in the country.
Sadly, all of the original buildings are gone now, but vestiges of the 1966 Mid-Century Modern buildings, which are quite amazing, remain.
The buildings were designed by the modernist, Mark Beck of Potter & Beck, Architects, later Mark Beck Associates.
We have several old advertisements for Taylor Manor in our Maryland Medical Journals which certainly made it look like a swinging place! The illustrations were done by local sketch artist, Aaron Sopher, who frequently provided illustrations for our Medical Journal.
Among the issues the hospital treated was gambling, but not alcohol. It was one of the first places to prescribe Thorazine, a neuroleptic, in 1953, and started the first psychiatric hospital for children in 1966.
Here are some images I took at Taylor Manor over the weekend. I thought they looked more dramatic in black and white! The family has been wanting to develop the land but the zoning is tricky because of the Ellicott City floods, the fact that the property is at the top of a 400' high hill, and that there would be a lot of impervious surfaces in the development.
This is an image from when the new part of the hospital opened. I love exploring, so take a look at some other hospitals I've visited!
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Women's Suffrage at MedChi
Monday, March 10, 2025
MedChi & The BSO Present: Raiders of the Lost Ark!
Start the afternoon with a visit to the MedChi Museum of Maryland Medical History, learn about our treasures which date back to the 1500s, tour the historic Osler Hall building, and have a pre-movie snack. Walk across Cathedral Street to take in the sold-out movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, complete with live orchestrations.
Experience the first on-screen adventure of everyone's favorite archaeologist/action hero like never before! Follow along with the adventures of Indiana Jones as he travels across the globe to secure the Ark of the Covenant, accompanied by endearing companions and facing notorious villains. The BSO performs John Williams’ legendary score live from stage while the full-length film plays on the big screen.
Reservations are $100, which includes one ticket to the movie, pre-movie snacks, a tour of the MedChi Museum, and a tax-deductible contribution to support MedChi's Museum and Archives. Unfortunately, there are no discounted tickets to this event, as the event is sold out, and this is a fundraiser for the Museum and Archives. To purchase tickets, please scan the QR code below.
Parking is available in MedChi's private lot at 1204 Maryland Avenue. Public transportation is also available.
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Women in Medicine - A Brief History
As you may know, we hosted a Women's History Month Symposium on March 1. I am going to share each of the speakers' talks, starting with mine.
In 1886,
MedChi welcomed its first woman member, Dr. Amanda Taylor Norris. In addition
to being the first woman member, Dr. Norris was the first woman with a medical
degree to practice in Baltimore.
She
graduated in 1880 from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania and returned
to Baltimore where she began her career. The Baltimore Medical College, a small
school, offered her a faculty position as a demonstrator of anatomy, which she
readily accepted.
As with
most physicians of the day, Dr. Norris was a generalist. She taught materia
medica, or the pharmaceutical aspects of medicine, practical obstetrics and
gynecology, and throat and chest medicine. Dr. Norris was also the physician to several
women’s clinics including the Female House of Refuge and the Evening Dispensary
for Women and Girls, which I will talk about shortly.
Before 1911, there were eleven medical schools in Baltimore.
That changed when the Flexner Report was published. This compared all medical
schools in the US to Johns Hopkins, a new and well-funded medical school. Most
other med schools were small and ill-funded and paled in comparison.
Originally
located on Eutaw Street, the college moved several times in its nearly 30-year
lifetime. It
was one of the earliest schools to require either a college diploma or an
entrance exam to attend. Because of the scarcity of women’s medical schools, women from around the world
attended the college.
The
Women’s Medical College closed in 1910, mainly due to lack of an endowment to
keep it going. In the Flexner report, it was stated that the laboratories were
scrupulously well-kept and showed a desire to do the best possible with meager
resources. It also mentions the Women’s Dispensary at the College. The College
would probably have closed regardless, due to paring down of medical schools
after the Flexner report.
From the beginning, women were admitted to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The men at Hopkins hated the fact that women were students, but since philanthropist,
The University of Maryland’s School of Medicine did not admit women until 1919, just before women received the right to vote. There had been a shortage of physicians for a few years due to World War One, and so it was more of a necessity that women were admitted to medical schools.
The Dispensary also provided an opportunity for female medical students to gain practical experience. In addition to providing free care for poor women, it also provided a clean milk distribution system for sick babies, social services, a visiting nurse program, and public baths.
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, there were a number of hospitals for women and children.
The ones for women in the late stages of pregnancy were called “lying-in” hospitals. The Maryland Nursery & Child’s Hospital was also for foundlings.There one additional woman I’d like to briefly talk about: Marcia Crocker Noyes.
She was not a physician, but the librarian at MedChi for 50 years. She was recruited by Dr. William Osler, one of the “Big Four” at Hopkins in 1896.
In 1904, Marcia became the Executive Secretary of the “Faculty” and oversaw all of the numerous activities in the buildings and for the members. She was highly respected by the physicians of the day. She owned her own car in the mid 19-teens, and was a member of the suffrage movement, which you just learned about. She traveled extensively in the US and abroad. She owned a “Camp” in the Adirondacks and would sail to England to visit her friend, now-Sir William Osler.
In 1946, Marcia became ill, so the physicians advanced her 50th anniversary party by a few months.
She died just a few days after her 50th anniversary in November of 1946 and is buried at Greenmount Cemetery. She remains here in the building as our friend and sometime companion.Thank you so much.