Opening Ceremony: Beginning of the Medical School
Opening Ceremony, 7pm Wednesday, November 5, 1873
The ceremony was held at Wesleyan Hall, at that time the location of the BU School of Law. As the opening of a new medical school, it was a significant event, attended by prominent members of the Boston social and political scene, including mayor Henry Pierce and former Massachusetts Governor William Claflin.
Speakers:
- BU President William F. Warren
- BUSM Dean I.T. Talbot
- Dr. Franklin Snow (recently President of the New England Female Medical College)
- Rufus Frost (reading a letter from Mass. Governor Emory Washburn)
- Author and activist Julia Ward Howe*
- Professor William Payne
*Howe, a prominent abolitionist, suffragist and literary figure (she wrote the Union ‘Civil War Anthem’ The Battle Hymn of the Republic), read a poem, "The Open Door," which she had written for the occasion.
Description of Ceremony from Boston University School of Medicine: Opening Exercises and Address
Wesleyan Hall, 1878
The Wesleyan Building (image from King’s Handbook of Boston, 1878) was the headquarters of the Boston Wesleyan Association, with additional space leased to other tenants over the years.