MEDICAL COLLEGE LECTURE TICKETS FROM THE 1800'S

By Dr. Michael Echols, American Civil War Surgical Antiques

Key Words: medical, college, university, school, lecture, card, admission, matriculation, ticket, Civil War, education

Prior to 1900, most medical schools or colleges used a system of lecture cards or 'tickets' to pay their faculty and doctors who taught in the schools.  The doctors who taught the course would issue a ticket to the students for their respective lecture in return for a (small by today's tuitions) fee paid by the student.  A student may have previously graduated or attended a medical school and the course would be taken as a refresher or extended knowledge course.  Not everyone who attended or bought a 'ticket' was there to graduate.  Some just attended or 'audited' the course.

Typically in the early and mid 1800's, medical school was only for two years and students would buy tickets for the courses they needed to graduate.  If they left for a year, when they returned, they could buy just the 'tickets' they needed to complete their degree.  At the beginning of each year, the students would buy a set of lecture tickets from the various lecturers/doctors to cover the requirement for that year.  Each year they bought another set of tickets toward their degree.  Just because a student purchased tickets for courses, does not mean they graduated.  At some medical schools there would be hundreds of 'matriculated' or beginning students, but when the graduated lists were published the following year only a few would be listed as having actually graduated.  Many attended, but few graduated or wrote their thesis.  As previously mentioned, there is also the situation of doctors coming back to review new knowledge from famous professors, so they may have only attended a given set of lectures and were not there to 'graduate'.

The tickets are printed on a heavy stock of paper with the name of the instructor and the signature of the instructor/lecturer may or may not be on the front or back of the card.  The student's signature is always on the front of the card.  If not, you have to wonder about the validity of the card.  Faculty signatures can be on the front or back of the card. 

Frequently one finds a whole set of these cards for a given student.  The cards may be in a leather pouch containing all the cards for the two years.  Typically the set may number up to 30 cards for a two year period.

Values for pre-1870 cards range from $15 to over $150 (mean value @$33) depending on condition, rarity, age, student or lecturer signatures, college, etc.  (From time to time a 'rare' autograph of importance to a small group of collectors will come up on eBay and prices will soar, but once that small group gets their fill, prices tend to drop like a rock, so beware.)  Post-1870 cards draw much less interest and prices are at least half or less of the value of earlier cards depending on the medical college.

The lack of interest in admission tickets dated after 1870 is because there are so many more of them.  For earlier cards, artwork, such as skulls or building drawings, on the cards is desirable.  Breaking up a set of cards for a given student is not adviseable as the whole is worth more than the parts.  A 'set' of two-years worth of lecture cards is more valuable than a single card.  Keep them together as a set when possible.

Rarity for a given college or university figures greatly into the value as some medical schools produced a greater number of graduates and others were in 'business' for a shorter period of time.  During the Civil War, schools in New York and Philadelphia produced a great number of the surgeons who served in the Union Army.  A school like Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City graduated huge classes during the War and consequently, the rarity of cards from that school is not as great as a smaller school like 'Harvard or Yale', unless the student was a famous Civil War surgeon or participated in famous battles.

Today there is a tendency to collect cards of ones alma mater or the region where the collector lives.  In the case of this collector, the effort is to collect the cards of authors who taught or wrote medical textbooks used prior to and during the Civil War.  The research project being assembled is done as a means of associating the education and work of the surgeons as well as tracking students who later joined the military during the Civil War.  Also of interest is to research the background of the faculty who taught. 

It is interesting to look at the pre-Civil War Graduation Catalogues of a given medical college and note the huge number of southern students listed at leading northern schools and colleges prior to the Civil War.  Their absence after the War is obvious as is the absence of women before and after the War.

The signature of a famous surgeon, faculty, or scientist can increase the value of a card as can their connection to a historical event, like the discovery of anethesia or a cure for small pox.  Of particular interest to 'autograph collectors' is a matriculation card with multiple signatures of the faculty at a given college, but again it all depends on the college and individual.  NOT ALL LECTURE CARDS HAVE VALUE.  SOME ARE JUST A CARD AND NOT IMPORTANT, ESPECIALLY IF THE CARD IS NOT SIGNED!

Topics normally found on lecture cards in the 1800's:

Earlier lecture cards (pre-1850) have fewer topics which were taught, so there will be fewer cards for a given student.  After the Civil War era, the number of cards for graduation greatly increased as topics taught expanded with the knowlege base.  Following are 'topics' one might find listed as being taught by a lecturer and printed on the card:

Physic & surgery, Lectures and theory, Surgery, Medica materia, Anatomy and physiology, Chemistry, Surgical anatomy, Surgical pathology, Operative surgery, Clinical surgery, Military surgery, Pathology and practical medicine, Medicine and surgery, Principals practice and operations of surgery, Department of medicine, Ophthalmology, Dermatology, Nervous diseases, Gynaecology, Venereal diseases, Laryngology, Obstetrics, Midwifery, Orthopedic surgery, Comparative anatomy

American medical schools and colleges in existence prior to and during the Civil War:

Some of the medical schools listed below were in existence for only a short time and others have changed their names or went out of 'business' over the years.  Not all medical schools are listed, but the more famous are here with approximate dates when they began. ( For a more detailed list with examples of cards from various colleges, see the section on medical lecture cards on "American Civil War Surgical Antiques", which is the extensive website maintained by Dr. Michael Echols. )

Albany Medical College, established 1839
Atlanta Medical College, established 1855
Auburn Medical School, established 1825-39
Bellevue Hospital Medical College, established 1861 and later merged with N.Y.U. Medical College
Berkshire Medical Institute of Massachusetts, established 1837-69
Brown University Medical School, established 1811
Castleton Medical College, established 1818-61
Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, established 1850
Cleveland Medical College - Western Reserve College, established 1843
College of Medicine of Maryland, established 1807
College of Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, established 1765
College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Iowa University, established 1850
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Western District of New York State established 1812-38
College of Physicians of the Valley at Winchester, established 1825-29
Columbian College, Medical Department (National Medical College), established 1825
Dartmouth College, Department of Medicine, established 1797
Geneva Medical College, established 1834-46
Georgetown College School of Medicine, established 1851
Humboldt Medical College, established 1859
Indiana Central Medical College, established 1849-52
Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, established 1825
Kentucky School of Medicine, established 1849­1908
King’s and Columbia Schools of Medicine, established 1767
LaPorte University Medical Department, established 1843-51
Long Island College Hospital, established 1858­62
Louisville Medical Institute, established 1833
Medical College of Alabama, established 1859-­61
Medical College of Evansville, established 1849­-54
Medical College of Georgia, established 1829
Medical College of Louisiana, established 1834
Medical College of Ohio, established 1821
Medical College of South Carolina, established 1823
Medical College of Virginia, established 1854
Medical Department of Cincinnati College, established 1835
Medical Department of Hampden-Sidney College, established 1837-54
Medical Department of Illinois College, established 1843-48
Medical Department of Lind University, established 1859
Medical Department of Pennsylvania College, established 1840-61
Medical Department of Randolph-Macon College, established 1837-54
Medical Department of St. Louis University, established 1842
Medical Department of the Missouri Institute of Science, established 1856
Medical Department of the University of Nashville, established 1850
Medical Department of Transylvania University, established 1816-59
Medical Department of University of Louisiana, established 1845
Medical Department University of Virginia, established 1825
Medical Institute of Yale College, established 1802
Medical Lectures at William and Mary, established 1848-49
Medical School of Harvard, established 1782
Medical School of Maine, Bowdin College, established 1820-1834
Memphis Medical School, established 1846-61
Miami Medical College established 1853-57
Miami University Medical Department, established 1831-61
Missouri Medical College, established 1847
New Orleans School of Medicine, established 1856-61
New York University Medical College, established 1837
New York Medical College, established 1847
Oglethorpe Medical College, established 1856-­61
Pennsylvania Medical University of Philadelphia, established 1853-61\
Penn Medical University of Philadelphia, established 1853
Philadelphia College of Medicine, established 1838-59
Rock Island Medical College, established 1848­
Rush Medical College, established 1843
Rutgers College (Queens College), established 1812-16
Savannah Medical College, established 1852
Shelby Medical College,  then became Medical Department of Vanderbilt University
St. Louis College of Medical and Natural Sciences, established 1855
St. Louis Medical College, established 1855,  then became Washington University 1899
Starling Medical College, established 1848-73
University of Buffalo Department of Medicine, established 1846
University of Louisville Medical Department, established 1845
University of Michigan Medical School, established 1849
University of Pacific Medical Department, established 1859
University of Pennsylvania, Medical Department
University of Vermont Medical Department, established 1820
Vermont Medical College, established 1827-56
Washington Medical College of Baltimore, established 1826-39
Willoughby Medical College, established 1834­45, 46
Winchester Medical College of Virginia, established 1847-62

Dr. Michael Echols is a medical collector/researcher, not a dealer, of surgical and medical text-books as well as medical ephemera like lecture cards published prior to 1865. 

Additional information on this topic and photos of Dr. Echols' extensive personal collection, as well as contact information for Dr. Echols can be found by searching Google for his extensive web site: American Civil War Surgical Antiques

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