Founded by U.S. Army Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg, MD in 1893, the Army Medical School (AMS) was by some reckonings the world's first school of public health and preventive medicine. (The other institution vying for this distinction is the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (1916).) The AMS ultimately became the Army Medical Center (1923), then the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (1953).
Sternberg created the AMS by issuing "General Order 51" on June 24, 1893. The School was housed, along with the Army Medical Library in the building of the Army Medical Museum and Library (affectionately known as the "Old Pickle Factory" or "Old Red") at 7th Street and South B Street (now Independence Avenue), SW, Washington, D.C. (This site is on the National Mall where the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum now stands.)
In 1910, the AMS relocated to 721 13th Street, NW and in 1916 to 604 Louisiana Avenue.
In 1923, the "Army Medical Center" (AMC) was created when (1) the AMS became the "Medical Department Professional Service School" (MDPSS) and (2) the MDPSS moved into "Building #40" on the grounds of the Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) in northern Washington, D.C.
The historic edifice known as Building #40 was constructed at 14th and Dahlia Streets beginning in 1922 and reached completion in 1932. This facility consists of four "Pavilions":
In 1947, the MDPSS became the "Army Medical Department Research and Graduate School" (AMDRGS), which in turn became the "Army Medical Service Graduate School" (AMSGS) in 1950.
In September 1951, "General Order Number 8" combined the WRGH & AMC into the present-day Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC). Three years later, the research elements of this facility became the present-day Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR).
| President | Tenure | Ref(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Col. Charles Henry Alden | 1893 | 1898 | [1] |
| CLOSED DURING SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR | 1898 | 1901 | |
| Col. William Henry Forwood | 1901 | 1902 | |
| Brig. Gen. Calvin DeWitt | 1902 | 1903 | |
| Col. Charles Lawrence Heizmann | 1903 | 1906 | |
| Col. Valery Havard | 1906 | 1909 | |
| Col. Louis Anatole LaGarde | 1909 | 1912 | |
| Col. Charles Richard | 1912 | 1915 | |
| Brig. Gen. William Hempel Arthur | 1915 | 1918 | |
| Col. Weston Percival Chamberlain | 1918 | 1918 | |
| Brig. Gen. Francis Anderson Winter | 1918 | 1919 | |
| Brig. Gen. Walter Drew McCaw | 1919 | 1923 | |
| Col. Weston Percival Chamberlain | 1923 | 1924 | |
| Brig. Gen. Henry Clay Fisher | 1924 | 1929 | |
| Col. Christopher Clark Collins | 1929 | 1930 | |
| Col. Charles Franklin Craig | 1930 | 1931 | |
| Col. Jay Ralph Shook | 1931 | 1931 | |
| Col. Edward Bright Vedder | 1931 | 1932 | |
| Col. Philip Weatherly Huntington | 1932 | 1935 | |
| Col. Joseph Franklin Siler | 1935 | 1939 | |
| Col. George Russell Callender | 1940 | 1946 | |
| Rufus Holt | 1946 | 1949 | |
| Elbert De Coursey | 1949 | 1950 | |
| William S. Stone | 1950 | 1953 | |
Graduates:
Others:
Walter Reed was a U.S. Army physician who in 1901 led the team that confirmed the theory of Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay that yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito species rather than by direct contact. This insight gave impetus to the new fields of epidemiology and biomedicine, and most immediately allowed the resumption and completion of work on the Panama Canal (1904–1914) by the United States. Reed followed work started by Carlos Finlay and directed by George Miller Sternberg, who has been called the "first U.S. bacteriologist".
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The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) – known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951 – was the U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on 113 acres (46 ha) in the District of Columbia, it served more than 150,000 active and retired personnel from all branches of the military. The center was named after Major Walter Reed (1851–1902), an Army physician who led the team that confirmed that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes rather than direct contact.
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William Crawford Gorgas KCMG was a United States Army physician and 22nd Surgeon General of the U.S. Army (1914–1918). He is best known for his work in Florida, Havana and at the Panama Canal in abating the transmission of yellow fever and malaria by controlling the mosquitoes that carry these diseases. At the time, his strategy was greeted with considerable skepticism and opposition to such hygiene measures. However, the measures he put into practice as the head of the Panama Canal Zone Sanitation Commission saved thousands of lives and contributed to the success of the Canal's construction.
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Aristides Agramonte y Simoni was a Cuban American physician, pathologist and bacteriologist with expertise in tropical medicine. In 1898 George Miller Sternberg appointed him as an Acting Assistant Surgeon in the U.S. Army and sent him to Cuba to study a yellow fever outbreak. He later served on the Yellow Fever Commission, a U.S. Army Commission led by Walter Reed which examined the transmission of yellow fever.
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The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) is the largest biomedical research facility administered by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The institute is centered at the Forest Glen Annex, in the Forest Glen Park part of the unincorporated Silver Spring urban area in Maryland just north of Washington, DC, but it is a subordinate unit of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), headquartered at nearby Fort Detrick, Maryland. At Forest Glen, the WRAIR has shared a laboratory and administrative facility — the Sen Daniel K. Inouye Building, also known as Building 503 — with the Naval Medical Research Center since 1999.
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Building 40, Army Medical School is a Georgian revival structure in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center complex in northern Washington, D.C., United States. It was built between 1922 and 1932 to house the Army Medical School, which became the Army Medical Center in 1923 when it — under the name “Medical Department Professional Service School” (MDPSS) — combined with the Walter Reed General Hospital. The MDPSS ultimately became the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, which occupied Building 40 from 1953 to 1999. It comprises four wings, known as the Craig (1924), Sternberg and Vedder (1932), and Siler (1962) Pavilions and is situated at 14th and Dahlia Streets.
Herbert Durham DSc (Cantab), MB, BC, FRCS, ARPS was a British physician and distinguished scientist.
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