The Manhattan Maternity and Dispensary opened in 1905, at 327 East 60th Street, as an institution dedicated to the care of women in confinement, and an alternative to city hospitals or at-home care. Both indoor and outdoor care was available, and both charity and pay patients were accepted. The hospital's Educational Department operated a training program for physicians and medical students. A Social Service Department served to teach mothers about childcare.

The dreadful yellow fever epidemic in the summer of 1798, with its toll on expectant mothers, activated interest in founding a lying-in hospital in New York. Dr. David Hosack, an attending physician at New York Hospital, initiated an appeal for money. Alexander Hamilton was one of the first subscribers. In 1799, a commodious house at No.2 Cedar Street served as the hospital; but, because of financial difficulties, the house closed after the first year. An arrangement was then made to have the patients hospitalized in a ward of New York Hospital.

The Cornell University Medical College was established in 1898 in New York City. It was formed by a group of physicians led by Dr. Henry P. Loomis, Dr. Lewis Atterbury Stimson, and Stimson's college friend from Yale, Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne, the wealthy son of a founder of Standard Oil. They were unhappy about a misunderstanding concerning New York University's management of the combined institutions of the University Medical College of New York University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College.

The Graduate School of Medical Sciences was officially established in 1952 in New York City. Graduate studies in the biomedical sciences had been in existence at Cornell University Medical College for forty years prior to the graduate school's opening.  In 1912, in cooperation with the Graduate School of Cornell University at Ithaca, the medical college offered its first graduate curriculum that led to advanced degrees in the biomedical sciences.

Historical Timeline

The Cornell Medical Index (CMI) was created in 1949, with its purpose "to meet the need for an instrument suitable for collecting a large body of pertinent medical and psychiatric data at a minimal expenditure of the physician's time. It serves as a standardized medical history and as a guide to subsequent interview."

Learn about our policies regarding access, collection development, and the Cornell Medical Index.

Learn how to access historical patient records held in the archives, dating 1794 to 1934.

Explore guides from our institutional collections, including the Weill Cornell Medical College, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, Cornell University-New York Hospital School of Nursing, and several others.