Toronto Medical Historical Club

Toronto Medical Historical Club was delighted to participate in the meeting of the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine (CSHM) at its annual meeting 31 May – 2 June 2025 at George Brown College, Toronto, in association with the  Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities.
Program and abstracts

Club members Peter Kopplin, Christopher Rutty, and Alison Li led a walking tour of local medical history sites in downtown Toronto. A delightful stop was made to view the class photos of several of our members at the University of Toronto Medical School.

Charles Hayter, John Dirks, Christopher Rutty and Alison Li participated in a roundtable entitled “Bridging the Gap: Making Medical History Accessible to the General Public | Combler l’écart : rendre l’histoire de la médecine accessible au grand public.” Stephen McCabe presented a paper on “Sterling Bunnell and the Emergence of Hand Surgery.”

The TMHC was proud sponsor of the refreshments for the delightful annual tradition of the Strawberries and Champagne Book Launch at which we toasted the publications of CSHM members over the past year.

The TMHC was pleased to be able to help the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine mark their 75th Anniversary.

A striking portrait of Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta (1825-1890) was unveiled November 7, 2024 at a celebration held in Seeley Hall, Trinity College, University of Toronto. Dr Augusta was a physician, army officer, hospital administrator, professor, and a life-long activist fighting racism and segregation. He was the first Black officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, the first Black hospital administrator, and the first Black medical professor in the United States. 

Augusta was born in Norfolk, Virginia but arrived in Toronto and enrolled in medicine at Trinity College in 1853 after he was refused admission to medical school in the US. He became the first Black medical student in Canada West and was awarded his medical degree in 1860. While in Toronto, he opened a drugstore on Yonge Street and later a private practice as surgeon. As president of an organization to advance education among the Black community, he provided books and school supplies to Black children. During the American Civil War, he returned to the US and was commissioned as major and served as the first Black physician in the Union Army. In 1868, he was appointed to the faculty of Howard University.