Collections : [IUPUI University Archives]

The Indiana University School of Medicine emerged from a number of private, proprietary medical schools that existed in Indianapolis in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The most important of these private medical schools were the Medical College of Indiana and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, both of which operated in Indianapolis. In the first decade of the twentieth century efforts began to try to merge these private schools under the state universities then in Indiana, Purdue University and Indiana University. The merger of several medical schools under Purdue University was short-lived. In 1903 Indiana University established first year (classroom) medical studies at Bloomington, and in 1907 merged with the Medical College of Indiana and the remnant of the Purdue medical school to establish clinical instruction in Indianapolis. In subsequent years the School of Medicine was housed in Indianapolis on a large campus with several hospitals, clinical, and research facilities. First year medical studies were moved to Indianapolis by the 1950s.