The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery (sometimes referred to informally as the Pennsylvania Dental College) was founded in 1856 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

and was the second oldest operating school of dentistry in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

by the time of its closing in 1909. From its faculty came what are today the dental schools of

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

and the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

History

The school was founded in 1856 with Henry C. Carey as president, and using many of the faculty of the defunct Philadelphia College of Dental Surgery which had been founded about four years earlier but had recently closed. Smith, Thomas Kilby
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
p. 2234 (1917)Warren, George W
Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery
''in'' ''History of Dental Surgery, Vol. 1'' (Charles R.E. Koch, ed.) (1909)Griffin, William L.J
History of the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery
in ''Fourth International Dental Conference'' (1905) Carey continued as president until his death in 1879.Obituary: Henry C. Carey
''Dental Cosmos'' (Nov. 1879) The school's first location was 528 Arch Street, where its predecessor institution had been located, and in some ways the school can be considered an effective successor of that earlier school. In 1863, the school experienced a bit of a setback when some of its resources departed to found a competitor, the Philadelphia Dental College (which later merged into

), and the school also moved to Tenth and Arch Streets. In 1878, another disruption occurred when the University of Pennsylvania began its own dental school. The university had been unable to secure a merger with either of the existing two schools, but was able to entice away a majority of the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery's faculty (four out of six professors). The school relocated again during this change, to Twelfth and Filbert Streets, hired additional faculty, and did not seem to suffer from the event.Pierce, C.N
Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery
in ''Biennial Report on Higher Education in Pennsylvania'' (1900)

Henriette Hirschfeld-Tiburtius Henriette Hirschfeld-Tiburtius (14 February 1834 – 25 August 1911) was the first female dentist in Germany. She was born at Sylt, a small island on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein. However, as there were no dental schools in Germany when s ...

, born in Germany, became the first woman to take a full college course in dentistry at the school. Hirschfeld-Tiburtius graduated from the school in 1869. Fanny A. Rambarger became the second American woman to earn the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1874 when she graduated from the school. In 1909, short of funds to modernize its equipment and enlarge its teaching staff, the school elected to close. Its remaining assets and records were given to the

University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine The University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine (often referred to as Penn Dental Medicine or simply Penn Dental) is the dental school of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), an Ivy League university located in Philadelphia. It is one ...

, effectively merging into the university.Taylor, J.A
History of Dentistry
p.162-64 (1922)

Notable alumni

Edward Angle Edward Hartley Angle (June 1, 1855 – August 11, 1930) was an American dentist, widely regarded as "the father of American orthodontics". He was trained as a dentist, but made orthodontics his speciality and dedicated his life to standardizing ...

, orthodontist * William Gibson A. Bonwill, dentist * Truman W. Brophy, oral surgeon *

Harold Chapman Harold Stephen Chapman (26 March 1927 – 19 August 2022) was a British photographer noted for chronicling the 1950s in Paris. Biography Chapman was born in Deal, Kent on 26 March 1927. He produced a large body of work over many years, with ...

, orthodontist * Matthew H. Cryer, oral surgeon * John Nutting Farrar, orthodontist *

James Garretson James Edmund Garretson (18 October 1828 – 26 October 1895) was a professor at the Dental College of Philadelphia, a clinic for oral surgery. With his work ''A treatise on the diseases and surgery of the mouth, jaws and associate parts'', first ...

, oral surgeon *

Milo Hellman Milo Hellman (March 26, 1872 – May 11, 1947) was an American orthodontist and an instructor at Angle School of Orthodontia and Chair of NYU Orthodontic Program. He is known for his contributions to the field of Orthodontia via his research on the ...

, orthodontist *

, first female dentist in Germany * John Henry "Doc" Holliday, dentist, gambler, and gunfighter in the

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery
''The Dental Cosmos'' (April 1872) * Albert H. Ketcham, orthodontist * John Mershon, orthodontist * Willoughby D. Miller, dentist * Robert H. W. Strang, orthodontist * Barnabas Wood, dentist * Rubén Bustos Sepúlveda, Chilean dentist and former intendant of Colchagua

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pennsylvania College Of Dental Surgery Defunct private universities and colleges in Pennsylvania Dental schools in Pennsylvania Defunct universities and colleges in Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Educational institutions established in 1856 Educational institutions disestablished in 1909 1856 establishments in Pennsylvania