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The study of anatomy at Washington University began in 1891 when the Saint Louis Medical College agreed to provide the medical faculty for the University. In 1899 the Missouri Medical College and the Saint Louis Medical College merged into the Washington University Medical Department. In the merger a young assistant professor of anatomy, Robert J. Terry, joined the University's faculty. The following year, Terry became the first Chair of the Department of Anatomy, a position he maintained until his retirement in 1941. Dr. Terry was the only department head to keep his position following the reorganization of the school's medical department in 1910. The Anatomy Department moved from the Locust Street Building in downtown St. Louis into the North Building on Washington University's medical campus in 1914.

When Dr. Terry retired, E. V. Cowdry became the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy in 1942. He served in this position until 1950 when he left to direct the Wernse Laboratory of Cancer Research, and Edward Dempsey took over as head of the department. In addition to his duties as head of the Anatomy Department, Dr. Dempsey served as Dean of the School of Medicine from 1958-1964. Dr. Dempsey left Washington University for a position at Columbia in 1966. Sarah Luce served for a short time as the Acting Head of the Department when Dr. Dempsey left, followed by Sam Clark who served for a year as Acting Head. In 1968, W. Maxwell Cowan became the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy. Under Dr. Cowan, the department changed its name to the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology in 1975.

When Dr. Cowan left the department in 1979, Roy Peterson served as Acting Head the following year. Gerald Fischbach became Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, and served from 1981-1990. Nigel Daw served as Acting Head for two years until David Van Essen became Chairman of the Department in 1992. Dr. Van Essen served as the Department Head until 2012.

In 2016, the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology again changed its name under the leadership of Azad Bonni, who has served in the role of Chairman since 2012. The department is now known as The Department of Neuroscience.

Washington University established a program in occupational therapy in 1938 shortly after a $200,000 donation was received from Rachel Stix Michael for this purpose. In 1945, the administration of the St. Louis School for Occupational Therapy, which had been in existence since 1918, merged with the program at Washington University. At this point, the occupational therapy program was administered within the School of Medicine, and the curriculum was increased to four years.

Martha Matthews, director of the program from 1956 to 1975, was instrumental in developing the curriculum, increasing the basic science courses, reflecting the increasing emphasis on scientific research in the study of occupational therapy. A graduate program was developed in 1977 to provide advanced training in practice and research. In October 1988, the academic program and clinical service were joined to form the Program in Occupational Therapy. It is through this union that the Occupational Therapy Program carries out its academic mission of research, education and community development, and its clinical mission of service and community education.

In 1910, Ernest Sachs, MD was recruited to Washington University to develop neurosurgery at the medical school. Although initially a member of the department of surgery, Sachs was named professor of neurosurgery in 1919, the first professorship in the world in this developing specialty. Sachs established a training program in neurosurgery at Barnes Hospital, which became an integral part of the development of this specialty in the United States.

In 1946, Sachs retired as chief of neurosurgery and was succeeded by Henry G. Schwartz, MD. Schwartz was a superb clinical surgeon who was extremely interested in the training of residents. He fostered strong ties to the neurology service and the basic neuroscience programs, and under his leadership, the neurosurgical program developed a strong commitment to basic and clinical research. Many of his trainees continued in academic neurosurgery and became leaders in the specialty.

Washington University's department of neurology became an independent department within the medical school in 1963 under chairman James O'Leary. Prior to that time, neurology had been a paired with several other departments within the university, including the former Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, the former Department of Neuropsychiatry, and as a division within the medicine department.

Although now separated into standalone departments within the Washington University School of Medicine, neurology and neurosurgery came together as one department in 1974 when the neurosurgery division of the school's surgery department joined the neurology department. During this time, the department had two chairmen. William Landau, MD remained head of neurology, and Sidney Goldring, MD became head of neurosurgery. The two served as co-chair of the newly named Department of Neurology and Neurological Surgery. The arrangement of having two chairmen for the department lasted until 2002, when neurology and neurosurgery separated to become independent departments within the medical school.

The Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences is a part of The Graduate School at Washington University. The division consists of 12 doctoral training programs that offer a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to research. Faculty and graduate students regularly cross scientific disciplines. The division offers doctoral training at the university’s School of Medicine, one of the nation’s preeminent biomedical research centers.

The department of medicine was inherited from the St. Louis Medical College when that institution affiliated with Washington University in 1891 to become the university's medical school. Following the publication of the Flexner Report, the department was reorganized in 1910, and George Dock, MD was recruited to Washington University to become the first full-time head of medicine at the university. Dock, who also served briefly as Dean of the medical school from 1910-1912, oversaw the move from the former educational and clinical buildings in downtown St. Louis to the new, present-day medical campus along Kingshighway Avenue in 1915.

The department was endowed in 1916 by John T. Milliken. This endowment provided sufficient funding for additional full-time faculty who could divide their time between clinical work at Barnes Hospital located on the new medical campus, teaching, and research without the need to depend on private practice for their income. For over a century, the department of medicine developed a strong tradition of research and discovery in the basic, clinical and translational sciences. Today, Washington University's department of medicine is a recognized leader in clinical care, teaching and research.

The Danforth Foundation was established in St. Louis in 1927 by William H. Danforth, the founder of the Ralston Purina Company, and his wife and children with a mission of "promoting the well-being of mankind." For most of its history its focus was national in scope and its main area of interest was education. In 1997, however, the Foundation shifted its focus to the St. Louis area, and eventually it chose three main areas of concentration: the development of the plant and life sciences, neighborhood redevelopment, and downtown revitalization. The Foundation, which had for years been spending from capital, announced in 2003 that it would expend the majority of its remaining assets on the development of the plant and life sciences in the St. Louis area. At that time the Foundation also made it clear that it would spend down its assets, and it gradually ceased making grants for operating funds.

Source: https://danforthcenter.org

The Department of Molecular Microbiology originated from the university’s former Department of Bacteriology and Preventive Medicine. Nobel Prize winner Arthur Kornberg became chairman of the newly designated Department of Microbiology in 1953. The department moved into new labs within the McDonnell Medical Sciences Building in 1970, and changed its name in 1975 to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. The department was again renamed in 1989 as the Department of Molecular Microbiology.

Washington University Hospital was established by the Washington University Medical Department in 1904 and officially opened 1 January 1905. The main hospital building was the former Missouri Medical College building, constructed in 1895. Adjoining it was the Hospital Dispensary, constructed in 1834 to house the St. Louis Post Graduate School of Medicine. The Hospital was extensively remodeled in 1911. The organization and functions of the Hospital were transferred to Barnes Hospital in 1914 and the former institution ceased all operation early in 1915.

The Missouri Medical College originated as the Medical Department of Kemper College, an Episcopal institution founded in St. Louis in 1830. In 1840, Joseph Nash McDowell, M.D., organized a group of four other St. Louis physicians as a teaching faculty and thus established Kemper College's Medical Department. The lectures delivered by these physicians were the first medical courses taught west of the Mississippi River. The Medical Department was initially housed in a building at the corner of Ninth and Cerre Streets in St. Louis and was often referred to as McDowell's Medical College in tribute to its founder.

Kemper College closed in 1845 due to financial constraints and the Medical Department consequently transferred to the University of Missouri. At this time, the department constructed a new building in St. Louis, shaped like an octagonal fortress. The Medical Department remained affiliated with the University of Missouri for the next ten years, until it received an independent charter and officially became the Missouri Medical College.

The Missouri Medical College matriculated its first graduates in 1841 and continued to graduate students each year, except for the duration of the Civil War. Between 1862 and 1865, the institution's building in downtown St. Louis was converted into a military prison, named the Gratiot Street Prison. When the war ended, the building was returned to the college and medical courses resumed. The Missouri Medical College continued in operation until 1899, when it was absorbed into the Washington University School of Medicine.

Central Administration includes all the administrative offices and services within the Washington University School of Medicine including the Finance Division, Office of Medical Student Education, Medical Public Affairs, and Office of the Registrar among many others.

The General Faculty was organized at the time of the academic reorganization of the School in 1910. A definition published in the Bulletin of Washington University, Twenty-first Annual Catalogue of the Medical School, July, 1910, p. 7, reads as follows:

The General Faculty is composed of the Executive Faculty and such other members of the teaching staff as are designated by the Corporation of the University and will meet at the call of the Chancellor or the Dean to consider appropriate matters.

The Chancellor called the early meetings. The first meetings minutes, September 29, 1910 are in the Executive Faculty minutes. Schedules, curriculum, teaching methods, and memorial minutes for faculty were subjects of early meetings. According to the Thirty-seventh Annual Catalogue of the Medical School, March 1, 1926, p. 41, the General Faculty was amended to be composed of all the officers of administration and instruction above and including the rank of Associate. The 1929 catalogue amended the lowest academic rank to that of Assistant Professor.

The Oscar Johnson Institute at Washington University School of Medicine was established to further research by the departments of Ophthalmology and Otolargyngology

The Barnes Hospital Department of Social Work was founded as the Social Service Department of St. Louis Children's Hospital and the Washington University Hospital in October 1911. From 1914 to 1952 the Department was governed by a lay board with the administration of Barnes Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital and the Dean of the School of Medicine serving as ex officio members of the Executive Committee of the Board. When administrative reorganization occurred in 1952 Barnes Hospital assumed the responsibilities carried by the Board.

Base Hospital 21 - a US military hospital staffed by doctors and nurses of the WU Medical Center and civilian volunteers from the St. Louis area - served with distinction during World War I. The 21st was one the first six military hospitals units sent ahead of the American military to serve in France during the war. The officer corps had been drawn in large part from the medical staff of Washington University Medical School and Barnes Hospital. Dr. Fred T. Murphy, professor of surgery at Washington University Medical School, was commissioned as the commanding officer for the military hospital. Also, Dr. Malvern B. Clopton, professor of clinical surgery at WUSM, acted as the chief surgeon for the base hospital. Julia Stimson, superintendent of Washington University Training School for Nurses, became the unit's chief nurse.

Organized in July 1916 the unit was mobilized on April 27, 1917. On May 17, 1917, the unit left St. Louis for New York and set sail for Europe on May 19, 1917. Disembarking at Liverpool, England, on May 28, 1917, the 21st trained for a short time in Britain. On June 10, the unit landed at Le Havre, France and on the following day arrived in Rouen, the largest city in France's Normandy region, where it took over and operated British General Hospital No. 12.

The original capacity of the hospital was 1,350 beds, but by October 1918 as many as 1,950 patients were cared for at one time. It received 29,706 surgical and 31,837 medical cases. Of these, 2,833 were American, the remainder being British and other Allied Forces.

The greatest testament of the excellence of the care provided was how many of the unit's key members were promoted to greater responsibility by the end of the war. The unit's chief neurologist Sydney Schwab was reassigned as the commander of a first American hospital specifically for shell shock cases, orthopedic surgeon Nathaniel Allison was made co-director of all orthopedic surgery in the combat zone; head nurse Julia Stimson would become the head of the Red Cross nursing service and Chief Nurse of the American Expeditionary Forces, and Fred Murphy would be promoted to head of the Medical and Surgical Service for the Red Cross. Following the Armistice ending the war on November 11, 1918, the 21st continued to care for the wounded and the sick and increasing repatriated prisoners of war. In 18 months of service in France, the 21st had treated 61,543 patients.

On January 22, 1919, the hospital was demobilized and the last of the patients were discharged or transferred. After several months of incidental duties and awaiting orders, the officers and enlisted men sailed to the U.S. on April 7, 1919, while the nurses, sailed on May 12th. In 23 and a half months of active service, the unit spent 23 months overseas.

After returning to the United States in 1919, Base Hospital 21 was designated a Reserve Officer Corps unit of the General Hospital category. During World War II was known as the 21st General Hospital.

The American Medical Association is the largest association of physicians and medical students in the United States, with a mission "to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health." Source: https://ama-assn.org/about

The American Medical Student Association is a student-led, national association that exists to cultivate, inspire, and inform medical students. Source: https://amsa.org/about/

The American Nurses Association is the premier organization representing the interests of the nation's 4 million registered nurses. Source: https://www.nursingworld.org/ana/about-ana/history/