Female Medical College of Pennsylvania Faculty Meeting Minutes, 1855-1856

Version: 10 (current) | Updated: 12/4/2025, 4:31:43 PM

Added description

Description

Female Medical College of Pennsylvania Faculty Meeting Minutes, 1855‑1856

Overview

This collection comprises scanned images and OCR‑text of the Faculty Meeting Minutes of the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, covering the period from February 1855 to May 1856. The materials include the minutes of 28 faculty meetings held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and are part of the larger bound minute book (1850‑1864) housed at the Drexel College of Medicine Legacy Center Archives. The collection is available in high‑resolution JPEG and TIFF formats.

Background

Founded in 1850, the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania was the world’s first institution regularly organized to train women for the medical profession. The faculty, led by Dean Ellwood Harvey, met regularly to govern the college, set curricula, manage finances, and oversee student affairs. The minutes provide a primary record of the college’s early administrative practices and its efforts to establish a professional medical education for women.

The collection documents deliberations on a wide range of subjects, including:

Student theses and examinations: reports on student work, admissions to examination, and conferral of M.D. degrees.
Faculty appointments and by‑law amendments: elections of faculty members to the Board of Corporation, appointments of demonstrators and chairs of departments, and changes to regulations.
Curricular planning: scheduling of lectures, selection of lecturers for the 1855‑56 academic year, and discussions of curriculum changes.
Financial and administrative matters: payment orders, committee formations for facility acquisition, and budgetary decisions.
Commencement and institutional events: planning of the Fourth Annual Commencement and other ceremonial matters.

The minutes are signed by key faculty members—Ellwood Harvey, Edwin Fussell, Ann Preston, Emeline H. Cleveland, Mark G. Kerr, Charles D. Cleveland, Sylvester Birdsall, and Kersey G. Thomas—providing insight into the governance structure of the college.

Scope

The collection covers faculty meetings held between February 1, 1855 and May 28, 1856, all conducted in Philadelphia. It addresses topics such as medical education, women in medicine, faculty governance, student life, curriculum development, and early institutional history. The materials are relevant to scholars of women’s medical history, 19th‑century higher education, and institutional governance. Access and reproduction are subject to the archive’s use‑and‑reproduction policy, requiring written permission for use beyond fair use.

Entities

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Entity Relationships

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Raw Cheimarros Data

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@collection_1855_1856 -> subject -> ["minutes","faculty meetings","medical education","women in medicine","women physicians","medical colleges","medical colleges--Faculty","medical colleges--Committees","medical colleges--By-laws","curriculum changes","Student Life","Early College Years","anatomical demonstration","medical faculty","college administration","degree conferral"]

Metadata

Title: Female Medical College of Pennsylvania Faculty Meeting Minutes, 1855-1856
Type: Collection
Creator: Female Medical College of PennsylvaniaEllwood HarveyEdwin FussellAnn PrestonEmeline H. ClevelandMark G. KerrCharles D. ClevelandSylvester BirdsallKersey G. Thomas
Institution: Drexel Legacy Collections
Created: 1855-02-01/1856-05-28
Language: en
Subjects: minutes, faculty meetings, medical education, women in medicine, women physicians, medical colleges, medical colleges--Faculty, medical colleges--Committees, medical colleges--By-laws, curriculum changes, Student Life, Early College Years, anatomical demonstration, medical faculty, college administration, degree conferral
Rights: Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Additionally, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by privacy and publicity rights, licensing or trademarks. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Place: Philadelphia (Pa.), 229 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20th & Hamilton Sts., Philadelphia, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Acton, Maine, Utica, New York, Jamestown, New York, Palmyra, New York, Toyicroft, Maryland
Source: PINAX

Version History (10 versions)

✓ v10 (current) · 12/4/2025, 4:31:43 PM
"Added description"
v9 · 12/4/2025, 4:24:59 PM · View this version
"Added knowledge graph extraction"
v8 · 12/4/2025, 4:10:12 PM · View this version
"Added PINAX metadata"
v7 · 12/4/2025, 4:04:27 PM · View this version
"Reorganized into 5 groups"
v6 · 12/4/2025, 4:04:25 PM · View this version
"Added child entity 01KBN1Q2Q46A2N1PNPQCW9BVKD"
v5 · 12/4/2025, 4:04:23 PM · View this version
"Added child entity 01KBN1Q0J334QSKX82WJYKSE16"
v4 · 12/4/2025, 4:04:21 PM · View this version
"Added child entity 01KBN1PYMY6K1FQPDE0H46XEB5"
v3 · 12/4/2025, 4:04:19 PM · View this version
"Added child entity 01KBN1PWH3F9N3W9ASHHY20EYY"
v2 · 12/4/2025, 4:04:16 PM · View this version
"Added child entity 01KBN1PT7FK633NE1MENRH42P9"
v1 · 12/4/2025, 4:03:32 PM · View this version
"Alphabetical chunk 5/11 (40 files)"

Additional Components

reorganization-description.txt

# Reorganization Summary

The files were organized chronologically by meeting dates, with each group representing a distinct time period of faculty meetings. This approach maintains the natural sequence of events and decisions while keeping related discussions together. The binary/ref files were paired with their corresponding content files based on matching filenames.

## Groups Created

- **1855_February_Meetings**: Files containing minutes from faculty meetings in February 1855, covering thesis approvals, examinations, and commencement preparations.
- **1855_April_September_Meetings**: Files containing minutes from faculty meetings in April through September 1855, covering beneficiary appointments, lecture schedules, and financial matters.
- **1855_November_December_Meetings**: Files containing minutes from faculty meetings in November and December 1855, covering Preston Retreat negotiations and board member recommendations.
- **1856_January_February_Meetings**: Files containing minutes from faculty meetings in January and February 1856, covering diploma printing, thesis reviews, and graduation preparations.
- **1856_March_May_Meetings**: Files containing minutes from faculty meetings in March through May 1856, covering announcements, regulations updates, and faculty appointments.

Parent

↑ 01KBN1DYGT4HKHTJ7FNZN9RSZP