There was a spirited debate on Lombard and Greene streets in 1906. Who would be celebrating in 1907 when the institution commemorated its 100-year anniversary? From the perspective of the medical faculty, the occasion was rightfully an exclusive medical department observance. Established as the College of Medicine of Maryland in 1807, the school didn’t receive its title “University of Maryland” until 1812 when it was re-chartered and authorized to annex to itself faculties of divinity, law, and arts & sciences. Therefore, the medical faculty argued, a university centenary celebration shouldn’t occur until 1912; the board of regents concurred. The governing body of the campus, consisting of members of the various faculties but controlled by a medical majority, announced that the centennial of only the medical department would be observed in 1907. Although it appeared that their decision was final, the event wouldn’t turn out that way.

Honoring Thy Charter
Before the birth of the University of Maryland, virtually all of our country’s universities had been established with departments of literature at their cores, viewed as the foundation for all higher education. These departments later served as feeders for their professional schools. Governance was entrusted to central figures whose decisions were based upon the interests of the university as a whole.

In medical terms, Maryland was a breech baby. At its nucleus was a medical college. The legislation
re-incorporating the medical college as a university in 1812 called for the annexation of faculties of divinity, law, and arts & sciences. Supreme authority rested with an unwieldy board of regents—academicians and clinicians who preferred leaving management of each department to its respective faculty. The provost was a mere figurehead who rarely exercised active control in the workings of the institution. This unique provision of self-governance was guaranteed by the state in the school’s charter, making the University of Maryland a defacto private school.

Critics argued that the regents did little to expand the campus into a university. Despite the appointment of five leading Protestant clergymen to the faculty of divinity in 1813 and their presence on the board
of regents until 1878, the divinity department never materialized. Only one set of theology lectures was ever delivered to the medical class. Entitled The Evidences of Christianity and Moral Conduct, it was presented on Sunday afternoons during the 1823–24 session.

The department of law fared much better after an inauspicious beginning. It was organized in 1823 with one professor, David Hoffman, LLD. He designed a two-year course and lectured daily until the early 1830s when a dispute over the sale of his library and furniture to the administration ended with his departure. It would be almost 40 years before law classes resumed in 1870, when seven faculty members began teaching a three-year course. Enrollment grew steadily over the years, and the faculty constructed a law building on Lombard Street beside the medical building. When the 1889–90 session opened, there were 99 students enrolled.

In an attempt to jumpstart a department of arts & sciences, the university had its sights set on acquiring, through legislative action, the ailing Baltimore College located in a two-story brick building on Mulberry Street. Graduating only five pupils in its first class of 1812, the college could not sustain itself and agreed to a merger in 1830. Upon completion of the acquisition, the university issued an appeal to Maryland citizens, claiming it now offered “advantages similar to what may be obtained in the distant universities of this country and Europe . . . we appeal to the patriotism, the piety, the parental solicitude, and the literary pride and zeal of the people of Maryland, and confidently solicit their cooperation in sustaining the university.” But the effort would soon fail, as Marylanders continued sending their sons to Ivy League schools. Inadequate salaries complicated the problem. Within a few years many instructors defected, and the school languished until 1878 when the faculty reported to the regents that they had abandoned the building.

In 1903 officials attempted to revive the department. Since funding was out of the question, the only means to establish such a program was by affiliation with an existing school. St. John’s College, located in Annapolis, offered itself as the institution most natural for the merger. A contract binding the institutions to a tentative union was signed in January 1907.

Dentistry, Pharmacy and Nursing
In 1882, Maryland hired away from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery both the dean and professor of clinical surgery, inviting them to serve in their same capacities at Maryland. They joined five other chairs in the dentistry department occupied by members of the medical faculty. Practice Hall, constructed in 1821 to house the medical museum and provide additional space for lectures, was immediately made available for dental lectures. This building, combined with facilities at the hospital and dispensary, offered prospective students advantages unmatched by any competitor. Sixty students enrolled during the first session in 1882, and by 1903 the faculty had financing to erect a three-story brick building along Greene Street and Cider Alley.
The edifice housed a dental museum, extracting and impression rooms, dean’s office, students’ reading room, clinic room and a large lecture hall with raised seats. Enrollment reached 150 by 1907.

Maryland’s department of pharmacy was created under similar circumstances. The Maryland College of Pharmacy was established in 1840 as an autonomous organization. It survived with relative success in a number of locations throughout the city until 1904 when it, too, took advantage of Maryland’s resources by agreeing to a merger. Enrollment experienced a similar boost, with more than 70 students, including women, matriculating for the upcoming sessions.

Assisted by members of the medical faculty, Louisa Parsons, a graduate of Florence Nightingale’s Nursing School in London, was hired to direct “domestic affairs” of the 150-bed infirmary. In 1889, she developed a training school consisting of a two-year apprenticeship program. The nursing curriculum was expanded to three years in 1905–06 and boasted an enrollment of 55.

A 20th Century Medical School with an Uncertain Future
At the close of the 19th century, national medical organizations and state examining boards were demanding more rigid standards for medical schools. By 1907, completion of a four-year high school course was a requisite for admission, and written examinations and uniform grading had become the norm. Tuition and fees for a four-year education totaled $570, although there was a reduction in fees if paid in advance. Enrollment stood at 350. Sixty-four instructors were employed at the medical college, teaching in laboratories of anatomy, chemistry, physiological chemistry, normal histology and embryology, and pathological histology and bacteriology. There was also a clinical laboratory. Clinical instruction was administered at University Hospital and its lying-in department located across the street; also in the Presbyterian Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital; the Hospital for the Relief of Crippled and Deformed Children; Bayview Hospital; and the out-patient or dispensary department. In addition to the hospital, there were three buildings dedicated to medical education. The medical library, the first medical library in the nation, had 7,000 volumes.

Revenues from an increasing enrollment base were critical to funding Maryland’s operations and servicing its debt. Recent spikes in the departments of dentistry, pharmacy and law were keeping it solvent; but they
created a terribly overcrowded campus. Other revenue sources were slow in developing or non-existent, as state-sanctioned lotteries could not be depended upon for operational support; an endowment fund created by alumni in 1893 had not yet reached a significant level; and recent funding appeals to the General Education Board were denied on the grounds that Maryland was simply a professional school and not a real university. In fact, official publications of both the state and country continued to deny Maryland the coveted “university” status. Adding to Maryland’s vulnerability was a new competitor in town—a medical school at Johns Hopkins—which opened in 1893. There was widespread concern that Maryland would never gain recognition as one of America’s great universities.

Amending the Party Proclamation
As planning for the May celebration accelerated, the issues were debated at a meeting of 600 alumni
on January 22, 1907. In an address entitled The Renaissance of the University of Maryland, John C. Hemmeter, MD, PhD, LLD, professor of physiology and chairman of the regents’ centennial committee, spoke candidly to supporters: “The present management of the University of Maryland is considered unsatisfactory by all our alumni and even by some of the faculty itself . . . the work of teaching in the didactic, laboratory and clinical courses, as well as the responsibility of management in certain work of the hospital is more than sufficient for the teachers. They should be spared the administrative and financial management.” Dr. Hemmeter argued for a separate board of trustees appointed by the state, and he concluded that the institution needed a new home. “I would urge the removal of the professional schools . . . together with the hospitals to some new location in the northwestern section of the city where there is a more healthy, physical and moral environment . . . this should be considered before any further funds are spent in the construction of new buildings at Greene and Lombard streets.”

With a department of arts & sciences now in place through the affiliation with St. John’s, there was a growing consensus among the regents that the upcoming celebration could be something much larger than originally planned. It should be, they concluded, the university’s coming out party.
In February 1907 the regents changed their earlier position, issuing a new resolution with unanimous support: “Resolved, that it is the sense of the regents in council assembled that, inasmuch as the school of medicine, organized in 1807, was the foundation of the University of Maryland, by the annex-ation to it of other departments, a centennial celebration of the whole university may properly be held in the year 1907.”

More than 8,000 engraved invitations were mailed to alumni, friends, presidents of every American
university and college conferring degrees, as well as most foreign universities. A four-day extravaganza was scheduled for May 30 through June 2, centering around the annual commencement. In late May, every building on campus was shrouded in green oak leaves and bunting featuring the university’s colors of maroon and black, the state’s black and gold, and the country’s red, white, and blue.

Ceremonies began on Thursday, May 30, in Anatomical Hall of the medical building with the playing of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 2 and a welcome to the more than 50 personal delegates representing universities and colleges. Among them were dignitaries from Harvard, Princeton, Cambridge, and the University of Berlin. Thursday events included a luncheon, tours of the campus, reunions, class dinners and smokers. The highlights of the celebration—graduation ceremonies and a banquet—were held at the Lyric’s music hall on Friday and attended by some 4,000 supporters. The four-hour commencement ceremony included the awarding of 237 regular degrees from the various departments and 30 honorary degrees. Attendees included U.S. attorney general Charles J. Bonaparte, Maryland governor Edwin Warfield, Baltimore mayor J. Barry Mahool and Cardinal James Gibbons. Saturday featured a steamboat ride from Baltimore to St. John’s College in Annapolis for a reception, concert, and the presentation of a plaque commemorating the affiliation agreement. Ceremonies concluded on Sunday with a service at Mount Vernon Church. The Baltimore American newspaper described the event as “the most imposing of ceremonies ever held in connection with the cause of education in the state of Maryland.”

The Aftermath
By all accounts, the centennial celebration was a smashing success. But it did nothing to improve the institution’s financial predicament, nor did it change the perception that Maryland was nothing more than a string of professional schools. Although the affiliation agreement with St. John’s lasted for a total of thirteen years, it did not succeed in helping Maryland meet its educational requirements. On April 9, 1920, after receiving assurances of financial backing from the state, the regents formally relinquished their control of the school, allowing the Maryland General Assembly to merge and consolidate the University of Maryland with the Maryland State College of Agriculture in College Park. Albert F. Woods, AM, DAgr, was appointed president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and College Park. He would be guided by a board of regents with no connection to the teaching faculties. The long struggle ended with the birth of a true university, a public institution destined for world-wide recognition. 

Sources for this article include Historical Sketch of the University of Maryland, by Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell, M.D., Press of Isaac Friedenwald, 1891; University of Maryland 1807–1907, by Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell, M.D., the Lewis Publishing Company, 1907; The Centennial Celebration of the Foundation of the University of Maryland, by John C. Hemmeter, M.D., Phil.D., LLD., Williams & Elkins Company, 1908; A University is Born, by Margaret Byrnside Ballard, M.D., Old Hundred Union, 1965; and the Bulletin, Vol. V, No. 1.