New York Medical College owes its founding in 1860 to a group of civic leaders who believed that medical studies should be practiced with a better understanding of what the patient needs. This group of civic leaders was led by the noted poet
William Cullen Bryant, who was an editor of the
New York Evening Post. Bryant was concerned about the condition of hospitals and medical education in New York City. His main concern was with some of the medical practices being used to treat disease, which at the time included bleedings, purges, and the administration of strong drugs in too large doses. Interest in the medical field rapidly grew over the next few years due to the
United States Civil War, which generated a major need for health related occupations. As a result, the college was founded and opened as the
Homeopathic Medical College of the State of New York on the corner of 20th Street and
Third Avenue, near
Union Square in
Manhattan. In the first semester there were 59 students and 8 professors. The college adopted the name New York Homeopathic Medical College in 1869 and, in 1887, New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital. The sister institution known as the
New York Medical College and Hospital for Women was founded a few years later in 1863 by
Clemence Lozier. In 1867, it graduated
Emily Stowe, the first female physician to practice in Canada. Three years later in 1870,
Susan McKinney Steward graduated as the first African-American female physician in New York State. One of its later graduates,
Adelaide Wallerstein in the class of 1905, also held a law degree, and founded the East Side Clinic for Children in 1906. When the Women's College closed in 1918, its students transferred to New York Medical College. In 1875,
Metropolitan Hospital Center opened as a municipal facility on Ward's Island, staffed largely by the faculty of New York Medical College. As a university hospital of New York Medical College, this relationship is among the nation's oldest continuing affiliations between a private medical school and a public hospital. Built by New York Medical College in 1889, the
Flower Free Surgical Hospital, was the first teaching hospital in the United States to be owned by a medical college. It was constructed at York Avenue and 63rd Street with funds given largely by Congressman
Roswell P. Flower, later governor of New York. In 1908 the college changed its name to
New York Homeopathic Medical College and Flower Hospital. In 1928 the college was the first medical school in the nation to establish a minority scholarship program. By 1935, the college had transferred its outpatient activities to the Fifth Avenue Hospital at Fifth Avenue and 106th Street. The college (including Flower Hospital) and Fifth Avenue Hospital merged in 1938 and became New York Medical College, Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals. In 1972, New York Medical College moved to
Valhalla, at the invitation of the
Westchester County government, which desired to build an academic medical center. Completed in 1977,
Westchester Medical Center is the main academic medical center of the college. The college became affiliated with the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of New York in 1978, which helped provide financial stability and also established a shared commitment for the public good in the area of health care and the health sciences. The college recognized itself in the Catholic tradition and affiliated with several Catholic hospitals. When Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospital closed in 1979, the remaining operations of New York Medical College were transferred to the Valhalla campus. The college shortened its name to New York Medical College in 1982. In 2010, the NYMC community celebrated the 150th anniversary of the founding of NYMC with a year full of sesquicentennial celebration activities. In that same year, it was announced that
Touro College, a Jewish-sponsored institution in
Manhattan, had reached an agreement to assume the sponsorship role for New York Medical College from the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of New York. In a ceremony held at
Bryant Park in New York City on May 25, 2011, New York Medical College officially joined the
Touro University System creating one of the largest health sciences universities in the country. New York Medical College embraces its unique history in having been a secular institution to an institution in the Roman Catholic tradition, to now being part of a Jewish-sponsored institution of higher education. In 2011,
St. Joseph's Medical Center in
Paterson, New Jersey and
Lenox Hill Hospital in
Manhattan, New York were designated as affiliates. Saint Michael's Medical Center in
Newark, New Jersey;
Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in
Brooklyn, New York; and the
Beckley Department of Veterans Affairs in
Beckley, West Virginia, also joined NYMC in 2014 as academic affiliates adding to the breadth and diversity of clinical experiences for students and residents. In 2013, NYMC acquired the former
IBM Research building at 19 Skyline Drive in Hawthorne, a 250,000 square foot, five-story building which provides essential space for offices and new programs. In addition, NYMC acquired 7 Dana Road and has renovated it into a state-of-the-art biotechnology incubator (BioInc@NYMC) and Clinical Skills and Disaster Medicine Training Center. In 2016, whimsical caricatures were added along the campus walkway. NYMC restored statues that were originally part of the children's wing of Grasslands Hospital (known today as NYMC's Sunshine Cottage Administration Building). The statues, along with the animal adornments on the building itself, were created to raise the spirits of sick children who were once treated here. The statues are thought to have been modeled after characters in English author Lewis Carroll's novel ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865). The statues live along the walkway that leads to Dana Road. On June 8, 2017, New York Medical College opened the Center of Excellence in Precision Responses to Bioterrorism and Disasters. The center is the twelfth center of excellence in the state of New York, and the first in the Hudson Valley. The goal of the center is to maximize efficiency and effectiveness immediately after high-casualty events like
terrorist attacks or natural disasters by improving resources provided to
first responders. Additionally, the center provides training for responses to terror attacks and natural disasters, as well as researches response techniques to chemical and biological terror challenges. State Senator
Terrence Murphy, a major supporter of state funding for the center, said the center "gives the region a vitally needed local resource to fight terrorism and potentially protect the lives of first responders and our families." After
Empire State Development, New York state's economic development organization, designated the facility as a center of excellence, New York Medical College received a state grant of $500,000 for costs associated with operations. Explaining New York's goal for the center, Dr. Robert W. Amler, dean of the School of Health Sciences and Practice, said, "The state wants to bring innovation technology into each region in a way that will stimulate more outside investment from the federal government and private resources." In the future, New York Medical College, through the center, aims to achieve full development of an "austere medicine" training facility for first responders, including scenarios they will likely encounter in reality, like active shooter threats, fires, and car accidents. In this aspect of training, trainees must encounter smoke, fog, loud noises, explosion simulations, and a variety of other disorienting effects. ==Schools==