The founding of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine fundamentally changed medicine in America. In the blink of an eye, medicine was transformed from a trade practiced by poorly educated craftsmen, to a science practiced by highly educated physicians. While this transformation may seem perfectly obvious in retrospect, the challenges were significant. In the first session of this lecture-based course, join Ralph Hruban, MD, Director of Pathology and Distinguished Alumnus as he tells the story of the founding of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine through the lives of John Shaw Billings and Mary Elizabeth Garrett.

We will start with the stories of two of the founders of the School of Medicine, Mary Elizabeth Garrett and John Shaw Billings. Their unbending vision in the face of enormous opposition set the standards that would define Johns Hopkins Medicine.
- Mary Elizabeth Garrett’s philanthropy rescued the University and allowed for the medical school to be built. Despite great opposition from the President of the University and from many others, she insisted that the medical school have high standards, and she insisted that it admit women on an equal basis as men. She won, and in so doing she made the medical school great.
- A civil war hero, John Shaw Billings was asked to design the buildings that would make up the original hospital. He did much more than simply lay out architectural plans. He helped establish the philosophy of the school, that of science applied to medicine, and he selected the school’s critical early leaders. And you won’t believe what he accomplished after that!

References:
1. Mary Elizabeth Garrett: Society and Philanthropy in the Gilded Age. By Kathleen Waters Sander. Johns Hopkins Press, 2008.
2. Order out of Chaos: John Shaw Billings and America’s Coming of Age. By Carleton B. Chapman. Science History Pubs, 1994.
3. https://youtu.be/WyK81mzOoN8 YouTube video about Mary Elizabeth Garrett
4. https://youtu.be/mP0lYLSL5UM YouTube video about John Shaw Billings
5. Early contributions to the Johns Hopkins hospital by the “other” surgeon: John Shaw Billings. By John L. Cameron. Ann Surg, volume 234:267-78. 2001.