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History

Progressive educational programs, cutting-edge research, and significant people and events characterize the dynamic history of The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS). Opened in 1825 as a medical department in Columbian College (now called The George Washington University), the GW Medical School was the 11th in the nation and the first in the nation’s capital. Throughout multiple name changes, relocations, and even a fire, the school has maintained a fierce dedication to the education of advanced health professionals.

The first GW medical department was located in downtown Washington, D.C. on 10th and E Streets near Ford's Theatre. In the 1840s, it moved into a larger building at Judiciary Square as an infirmary, which subsequently became the first general hospital in the nation's capital. When the GW Infirmary was enlarged in 1853 to allow the curriculum to formally include clinical studies, the college became one of the first in the nation to teach clinical medicine.

The civil war presented considerable challenges for the infirmary, which was reclaimed by the government for use as a military hospital, and was shortly after destroyed by fire. Despite this chaos, however, the medical college reopened in 1863 in the Constitution Office on E Street. Five years later, the hospital and medical school moved to the former location of the Army Medical Museum's specimens, 1335 H Street.

The year 1884 marked a milestone for the Columbian University Medical School, when it enrolled its first female student. First implemented on a trial basis, the policy distinguished the school for decades as one of the only medical schools in the nation to admit women.

Four years after the turn of the century, the Columbian University Medical School and Hospital were rededicated The George Washington University Medical School and Hospital. At this time, the faculty boasted many of the nation's most prominent doctors, including Major Walter Reed, who identified the mosquito as the carrier of yellow fever; Dr. Theobald Smith, whose pioneering research identifying germs as the cause of diseases changed the course of medicine; and Dr. Frederick Russell, who introduced typhoid vaccine into the Army.

In 1928, the Department of Medicine became the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, and the University Hospital, and in the 1960s, it became one of the first to implement external clinical rotations. The Health Sciences Programs were introduced in 1972, with the launching of Physician Assistant and Nurse Practitioner programs. Other programs, such as Radiology Technician, Clinical Laboratory Science, and Nurse Anesthetist, were subsequently organized within Health Sciences.

Ever since Walter G. Ross Hall, The George Washington University Medical Center’s main building, and the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library were constructed in 1973, SMHS has lived on Washington Circle. Keeping pace with medicine’s rapid advance, the school has continued to expand its medicine and health sciences programs, educating of a range of health professionals from physicians to clinical research administrators to Pharmacogenomics experts to sonographers. Today SMHS builds upon its strong history, turning out class after class of well-qualified, ambitious, and service-oriented health professionals prepared to influence the health of our nation and world.

“Adapted from ‘A Brief History of The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ by G. David Anderson, University Archivist”