Talk:Willamette University College of Medicine

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[edit] authorative history

for the authoratative history of willamette--- the chronicles of willamette by Dr. Robert Gatke is the source. Dean Gregg wrote a post WWI update. Gatke was a very ancient professor emeritus of political science at WU when I was there in the mid 1960's. His book was produced in 1942 to celebrate the centennial of WU. Professor Gregg wrote a second volume.

Dr. Gatke in his book consistently referred to the "College of Medicine" which in name was consistent with the "College of Pharmacy" and the College of Law.-----See page 425

on page 426 Professor Gatke writes: "The College of Medicine, the oldest of the professional schools, continued in Portland until 1895 when it suddenly found itself without hospital clinical privileges." he then goes on to explain why..... He explains that it had something to do with a new rival medical college in Portland affilliated with the University of Oregon.

However being in some ways an 'in house' history, the actual sale of the College of Medicine is described as follows:

"The school had nobly served the pioneer Northwest and tained many of its leading physicians; the work must now be bolstered either by heavy endowments or be passed to a school enjoying state support. With no special endowment in site the latter course was determined upon. At the annual meteing of the Board in 1913 the action of a special committee was confirmed whereby the Willamette College of Medicine was absorbed by the University of Oregon andn provisions made for the recognition of the Willamette medical students and alumni." This is footnoted to volume VII page 205 of the trustee minutes.

Guess I don't see calling it the 'school of medicine' when the offical college historian consistently referred to it as the "College of Medicine" or the "Medical College.Rvannatta 05:24, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Before writting the article that was a key decision I grappled with. Some refer to it as School, others college, some even the medical department. If you look at the reference coming from the school, they say School of Medicine, so that is what I ultimaetly went with. They may have gone through a variety of titles. According to Hines, which is only a couple years removed from the founding, it is the Medical Department. So maybe they went with that, then School, then College, with Gatke then simply choosing his favorite or his preference and making uniform references throughout. Honestly, reading the two histories (Gatke and the 2nd) I find them interesting, but not great from a historical standpoint, in that as a historian I find them of poor quality as lacking a more neutral examination of the subject. Of course I found the same problem with Ambrose and Undaunted Courage, but it was still a good read. I'll try to dig around at the library and see if I can find something from the time period (like a yearbook, catalog, etc.) to see what it was at least last called. Aboutmovies 06:12, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

One would suppose that it would have started as a department..... before it had a life of its own.

Certainly Professor Gatke (whom I sort of knew--You would see him and Dean Gregg shuffling around campus now and then) was charged here with writing an 'official history' and as such a certain amount of whitewash is called for. After all no one on the planet will ever read it except alums from whom they are hoping to raise money.

That said the name may change with the formality of the occasion as well. Are you 'going to law school' or 'studying at the College of law'?

My sort of take is that since Gatke was a semi official historian that offical names he applied to things should be accepted over opinions of outsiders unless he invented it out of whole cloth. Should the library have any catalogs of the era, that might be helpful.--- I doubt if sample diplomas of the time are hanging around on many walls. Clearly Gatke didn't come to WU until 1934 well after the college (or school or whatever) was gone so he would not have had first hand knowledge.Rvannatta 01:47, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Pretty much my thoughts. The only issue I have with going with Gatke at this point is that, if you will, we have a split of authority with the WU website saying school. So, I'm going to play SCOTUS and look at the legislative history if you will and try to see what it was at the time, though it might not be till next week as I may have to make an appointment with an archivist. And just an FYI, Willamette University College of Medicine does redirect here in case someone types that in. Aboutmovies 02:11, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

What would be fascinating if one had the time, would be to visit the Oregon state library, and read the newspaper articles of the time around when the Medical school/college closed. I'll bet there was some flap in the paper which might provide a different perspective. After all a new building had just beeb built to house it, and apparently a hospital started to be a teaching hospital if I read things right. To my understanding a former hospital building was torn town to make way for the present lawschool. This (the tear down) happened while I was at willamette, but I have no idea if that was the hospital that Gatke refers to. It was a tenament apartment building before its demolition.Rvannatta 05:14, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I notice the "Salem On line history" that you cite also uses college of medicineRvannatta 05:22, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

The yearbooks for 1903, 1910, and 1913 all used College so I have moved the article to that name and changed the references in the article to match. It had about three times as many professors as the law school, so odd that they let the school go. Aboutmovies 09:22, 19 October 2007 (UTC)