The Case for Western Reserve: Medical Education Reform in the Midwest, 1900–1920

Western Reserve University expands our understanding of the reform processes of early twentieth-century medical education in the United States. The institutional powerhouses of the East Coast dominate historical accounts, but change may have occurred differently and more slowly in medical schools of the Midwest and West. Western Reserve University (WRU), although midwestern and supported by meager endowments, ranked among the best medical schools in the early 1900s.1 It is clear that medical education reform leaders were not limited to the Northeast because, as Kenneth Ludmerer states, “improvements at these schools [in the Midwest] occurred quietly, almost without notice.”2 Western Reserve University’s Medical Department warrants historical attention because of how its socially progressive policies and ambitious professional efforts placed the department at the forefront of medical education.