Medical Student Life & Culture research guide

Overview

This guide lists resources for exploring the life of a medical student, mirroring the 2025 Student Life & Culture physical exhibit at Drexel University College of Medicine. The exhibit was made possible by generous support from Robert K. Wenger, MD, MCP 1983, and displays student life at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Hahnemann University, and Drexel University.

Records used in the exhibit span from 1848-2000, and are loosely divided by six categories: Recreation/relationships, Daily life, Rites of passage, Making a difference, Academic and clinical training, and Mentoring.

View the online version of the physical exhibit

Some links and resources presented by this guide are merely descriptive records that detail the existence and description of relevant archival holdings, while other materials have been digitized and can be accessed online. Each will be noted as such, and our archivists would be happy to further assist you in finding and accessing any collections of interest. com_archives@drexel.edu

Digital Collections

A small portion of the collections are digitized and available online. Collections listed throughout this guide include links to digital material where noted. Digital material can also be accessed from the following Legacy Center resource page

View digital materials from the Medical Student Life & Culture exhibit
Search for all digital records tagged with the term “student life”

Photographs

Student theses

In the first 50-60 years of United States medical schools, a student thesis was a required assignment for completing the MD. A portion of our collections of these student theses have been digitized for both schools.

Yearbooks and classbooks

The Legacy Center has digitized the yearbooks of the predecessor schools, through 2011.

View links to the digitized yearbooks

Individuals

Hahnemann

  • Dr. Frank Lehman notebooks. Collection No. 047. [collection description]
    • Collection of Dr. Lehman’s class notes across disciplines from his time as a student at Hahnemann Medical College at the turn of the 20th Century.
  • Theodore Geiger notebooks. Collection No. 092. [collection description]
    • Class notebooks by both Dr. Geiger, from 1853 and 1854, and Dr. Shower’s from 1876. A good resource to understand the curriculum of the time.
  • Dr. John Stolz notebooks. Collection No. 093. [collection description]
    • Collection contains a Hahnemann Medical College students’ notebook from 1931, and includes notes distributed to the freshman class to be memorized.
  • Dr. Arthur Maynard Eastman papers. Collection No. 083. [collection description]
    • Dr. Eastman [1855-1923] graduated from Hahnemann Medical College in 1879. This collection contains materials regarding his time as a student there, as well as his brief period of practice at the Homeopathic Hospital of New York.
  • George Pleasanton papers - student Notes. Collection No. 084.[collection description]
    • This collection includes student notebooks belonging to Mr. Pleasanton from 1885-1887.
  • Harold A. Krohn papers. HU.106. [collection description]
    • A collection containing notes, class projects, medical pamphlets, and other student materials of Dr. Krohn’s from the 1930s.

W/MCP

  • Anne Cummings papers. WM-2002-040. [collection description]
    • Dr. Cummings’ student notes and curriculum materials from 1991-1997 as a student at the Medical College of Pennsylvania.
  • Amy Brodkey, M.D., papers. WM-2019-046. [collection description]
    • Newspaper articles, including student newspapers and pamphlets, document Brodkey’s student political life."
  • Agnes Gowdey, M.D. papers. WM-2003-007. [collection description]
    • Collection contains course notes and other records from her time as a student, including a series of anatomical drawings, a scrapbook she made for the 25th reunion of the Class of 1935, and general correspondence between her and her classmates.
  • Gene-Ann Polk, M.D. papers and Susan Smith McKinney Steward Medical Society records. ACC-2006.010. [collection description]
    • Some materials from Dr. Gene-Ann Polk’s [1926-2015] time as a student at both Oberlin College and Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, where she graduated in 1952.
  • Alma Dea Morani, M.D. papers. WM-143. [collection description]
    • Dr. Morani [1907-2001], one of the first female plastic surgeon, has an extensive series of materials related to her time as a student at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (1928-1931), including her class notes and lecture materials.
  • Catharine Macfarlane, M.D. papers. WM-047. [collection description]
    • Dr. Macfarlane attended the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (1895-1898). Some materials in the first series, Biographical Papers, record her student activities. Includes report cards and tuition slips.
  • Isabel Smith Stein collection on Elizabeth Cisney Smith, M.D. WM-2002-002. [collection description]
    • Dr. Smith’s [1881-1965] personal writings and correspondence detail much of her education at the Woman’s Medical College.
    • Ann Preston, M.D. papers. WM-289. [collection description]
    • The second series of files, photocopies of materials held by other repositories, contains correspondence in regard to her ongoing medical education.
  • Longshore family papers. WM-028. [collection description]
    • Collection of records from Thomas Longshore, his brother Joseph Longshore, and his wife Hannah E. Myers Longshore. Includes documentation on medical education, and the founding of the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania (later the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania), with materials from the lives of a student, founder, and supporter from 1819-1902.