Most universities have developed from a college; the University of
Maryland differs from them, for it originated in a medical school.[11]
In 1802 Dr. John B. Davidge of Baltimore began a private class in
Medicine and was so successful in it, that, in 1807, he associated with
himself Drs. James Cocke and John Shaw and these three obtained from the
Legislature a charter for the school, under the name of "the College of
Medicine of Maryland."[12] There was made a close connection between the
College of Medicine and the State "Medical and Chirurgical Faculty,"
and its board of medical examiners were made _ex-officio_ members of the
Board of Trustees of the College. The Legislature also granted the
college a lottery of $40,000.[13]
Lectures, which had been carried on at the professors' houses, were
begun in 1808, at a building on the corner of Fayette (Chatham) street
and McClellan's alley, and the first class, consisting of five, received
its degrees in 1810. As the school grew and nourished, the ideas of its
founders become more extensive and, in 1812, a long act was passed,[14]
authorizing "the college for the promotion of medical knowledge" "to
constitute, appoint, and annex to itself the other three colleges or
faculties, viz.: The Faculty of Divinity, the Faculty of Law, and the
Faculty of the Arts and Sciences; and that the four faculties or
colleges thus united, shall be and they are hereby constituted an
university, by the name and under the title of the University of
Maryland." The connection with the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty was
severed and the members of the four faculties, under the name of the
Regents of the University of Maryland, were to have full powers over the
University and be permitted to hold property not exceeding $100,000 in
yearly value.
Each faculty was allowed to appoint its own professors and lecturers, to
choose a dean, and to exercise such powers as the regents shall
delegate. The Faculty of Physic was to be composed of the professors in
the Medical College; that of Theology, of the professor of Theology and
any "six ordained ministers of any religious society or denomination;"
that of Law, of the professor of Law, "together with six qualified
members of the bar;" that of the Arts and Sciences, of the professors in
that department, "together with three of the principals of any three
academies or Colleges of the State." Such a strangely formed and loosely
united body could not succeed, as a more homogeneous and closely
compacted one would have done.
The university was founded "on the most liberal plan, for the benefit
of students of every country and every religious denomination, who shall
be freely admitted to equal privileges and advantages of education, and
to all the honors of the university, according to their merit, without
requiring or enforcing any religious or civil test, urging their
attendance upon any particular plan of religious worship or service."
With these broad powers and provisions,[15] "the Faculty of Phisick,
late of the College of Medicine of Maryland, *** convened and, by the
authority vested in it by said charter and with the advice and
recommendations of learned men of the several professions of Divinity,
Law, and the Arts and Sciences, proceeded to annex to itself the other
three faculties." On April 22, 1813, the Hon. Robert Smith, formerly
United States Secretary of State, was chosen the first provost, and the
organization of the regents was completed.[16] A lottery of $30,000 was
granted the University in 1814, and another of $100,000 in 1817.[17]
From the proceeds of these lotteries and other sources was built the
building of the medical department on the corner of Lombard and Greene
streets. It was modelled on the Pantheon at Rome, and, when built, is
said to have been without an equal in America. The medical school grew
extremely fast; a loan of $30,000 from the State in 1822[18] enabled it
to build a practice hall and purchase a fine collection for its museum,
and the University hospital across the street was opened in 1823. In
1824 the number of students in attendance on lectures amounted to 320.
The other faculties took no active steps for some time and, not until
1819, did the regents urge them to proceed to deliver lectures as soon
as possible and to lay before the regents annually a report as to their
progress and condition. In 1823, possibly on account of this vote.
Prof. David Hoffman began the instruction in the Faculty of Law, his
school being known as the "Maryland Law Institute." He published part of
his lecture notes in a book called _Legal Outlines_ and continued
lecturing about ten years. After his withdrawal, the law school was
given up; but the organization of the faculty was still maintained.
The Faculty of Theology reported in 1852 "no active organization of the
faculty has ever been attempted and, in view of the character of the
department contemplated by the charter, none seems desirable." Its only
activity was a course or two of lectures on the Evidences of
Christianity, delivered before the medical students about 1823 by the
Rev. William E. Wyatt, Professor of Theology. A nominal organization of
the faculty was kept up, however, until 1878.
The prosperity of the medical department was destroyed by the effort of
some of its professors, discontented with being prohibited from having
private classes, to have the Legislature do away with the regents and
replace them with a board of trustees, in whom should vest the property.
As early as November 12, 1824, the Regents feared trouble and obtained
from William Wirt, John Purviance and Daniel Webster, a legal opinion
that their position was inexpugnable. With this conclusion the
Legislature did not agree, and on March 6, 1862, an act was passed
abolishing the Regents and appointing a Board of twenty-one Trustees in
their place.[19]
The Trustees, by decree of the courts, obtained control of the property
and forced the professors to accept them as the legal authority. So
matters went on for twelve years, until in 1837, the trustees appointed
a professor personally objectionable to some of the others, who resigned
their positions under the Trustees and opened a separate medical school
in the Indian Queen Hotel at the corner of Baltimore and Hanover
Streets. Few out-of-town students attended either school, for the
quarrel frightened them away, and the Baltimore students largely
attended the Regents' school. Feeling ran high at one time, the Regents
took possession of the University buildings by force, and bloodshed was
feared.
The Board of Regents reorganized with Ashton Alexander, M.D., as
Provost, and employed distinguished counsel to plead the case for them
in the courts. The Legislature authorized the Court of Appeals to try
the suit, and Maryland's Dartmouth College Case was decided in June,
1838, entirely in favor of the Regents. The court held that the act of
1825 was void, since it was "a judicial act, a sentence that condemned
without a hearing. The Legislature has no right, without the assent of a
Corporation, to alter its charter, or take from it any of its franchises
or property." The Trustees would not yield at once and, in March, 1839,
presented a petition to the Legislature, praying it not to pass an act
requiring them to give up the property to the Regents. The memorial was
referred to a joint committee, which reported a bill restoring the
property to the Regents. The bill was enacted and the Regents have since
ruled. During the supremacy of the Trustees, the Faculty of the Arts and
Sciences was organized. They contemplated activity in 1821, and issued a
circular, which drew down on them the wrath of Professor Hoffman,
inasmuch as they "contemplated 'academic' instruction" not intended by
the charter. The founders, he said, intended that instruction should be
conveyed by lectures and that no other form of instruction should be
allowed. The discussion which followed seems to show that he had the
idea of having work carried on, like that done by graduate students
to-day.
But nothing was done, apparently, until Baltimore College was annexed in
1830. That institution was chartered on January 7, 1804,[20] and was the
development of an academy kept by James Priestley, the first president,
on Paul's Lane (St. Paul Street). "It was hoped that it would, together
with the other valuable seminaries of education in the same city and in
the State, become adequate to the wants and wishes of our citizens," and
from the proceeds of a lottery, the grant of which was an easy way for a
State to be benevolent, a plain but convenient building was erected on
Mulberry street.[21]
It is very doubtful if it ever graduated any students, and we learn in
1830 that "the celebrity and, in some cases, the superior existing
advantages of other institutions have prevented the accomplishment of
this object." Still a school had been kept up continuously, and from
time to time, we catch glimpses of its lectures, &c. In January, 1830, a
joint petition of the Trustees of the University of Maryland and of
Baltimore College to the Legislature "proposed the charter of Baltimore
College shall be surrendered to the State, on the condition that the
property belonging to the college shall be invested in the trustees of
the University of Maryland." The petition was granted,[22] and in 1832,
we learn that "the Baltimore College *** has now been merged in the
University of Maryland and constitutes the chair of Ancient
Languages."[23]
On October 1, 1830, the Trustees issued a prospectus, from which we
learn that it was intended "to maintain an institution on the most
enlarged scale of usefulness and responsibility," and that there was a
"necessity for the proposed organization of a department in the
University of Maryland, exclusively collegiate in its system, requiring
an advanced state of classical and scientific attainments for admission
to its lectures, calculated to conduct its pupils through the highest
branches of a liberal education and to afford them advantages similar to
what may be obtained in the distant Universities of this country and
Europe." A course of study equal to that of any college of the country
was announced, and a brilliant Faculty appointed; but the time was not
yet come for a great college in Baltimore and the institution
languished away. In 1843, the Commissioners of Public Schools petitioned
to have it transferred to the city as a High School, and in 1852, it had
only one teacher and 36 scholars, a mere boys' school.
In 1854 it was reorganized as the "School of Letters under the Faculty
of Arts and Sciences," with Rev. E.A. Dalrymple, formerly of the
Episcopal Theological Seminary at Alexandria, as its head. On paper the
course was fairly complete, and the Faculty an able one, and there were
graduates in 1859, '60, '61, and '63. The course was to be a three
years' one; for "the studies of Freshman year will be pursued in the
preparatory department, where experience has shown they may be attended
with greater advantage." Gradually students fell off, it became a mere
boys' school, and finally Dr. Dalrymple was all that was left of the
"School of Letters" and the "Faculty of the Arts and Sciences," and at
his death, both formally became extinct.
With the restoration of the property to the Regents, the classes in the
medical school increased to a size somewhat like that attained in years
previous to 1825, although, owing to the opening of new schools, they
never quite equalled it. During the war of the Rebellion, the school
suffered from the loss of southern patronage; but at its close, students
came back and the school took on fresh life. It has always been in the
front rank; first of all American medical schools it recognized
Gynecology as a separate branch of instruction, and it was second in
making practical Anatomy a compulsory study. With the session of 1891 it
will require a three years' graded course of all candidates for degrees.
In 1850 the Hon. John P. Kennedy, statesman and author, was chosen
provost, and on his death in 1870, the Hon. S. Teackle Wallis was made
his successor and he now fills the office with honor.
The Faculty of Law revived the Law School in the beginning of 1870, with
a class of 25. An efficient faculty has caused a steady increase,
until, in 1890, there were 101 students in the three years' course. The
instruction is given by lectures, examinations, and moot-courts. In
1884, the Law Department moved from its former quarters in the old
Baltimore College building on Mulberry Street, to a new building erected
for it on the University property on Lombard Street, next to the
building of the Medical Department.
In 1882, the University of Maryland obtained from the Legislature
authority to open a Dental Department.[24] In 1837, the first Dental
Lectures in America had been delivered before the Medical Students of
the University, and it was quite fitting that there should be a dental
school connected with it. The first class numbered 60, the last 132, and
in eight years there have been 250 graduates. This fact and the further
one that twice has it been found necessary to make large additions to
the buildings of the department on Green Street, adjoining those of the
Medical School, will show how rapid has been its growth.
The University has, at present, flourishing departments of Medicine,
Law, and Dentistry, and worthily maintains the reputation of thorough
and careful training, which it has gained in its history of eighty
years.