Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Corporate History
Scope and Content
Descriptive Summary
Title: California Medical Association Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1925-1940 and 1964-1975
Collection number: MSS 75-1
Creator:
California Medical Association
Extent: 2 cartons
Repository:
University of California, San Francisco. Library. Archives and Special Collections.
San Francisco, California 94143-0840
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Provenance
Donated by J. B. de C. M. Saunders, 1975.
Access
Collection is open for research.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], California Medical Association papers, MSS 75-1, Archives &
Special Collections, UCSF Library & CKM
Corporate History
The California Medical Association has its roots in the American Medical Association,
founded in 1846, and in the California State Medical Society, which was founded in 1856
by members of the Sacramento Medical Society and the San Francisco County
Medico-Chirurgical Society. From the beginning, this first state medical society
reflected polarities between the northern and southern sections of the state, and feuding
among --and sometimes within --various city and county medical societies. Within a few
years personal animosities and petty squabbles had reduced the California State Medical
Society to an organization that existed on paper only. Although officers were elected as
late as 1860, factional differences around the issues of the Civil War ensured that the
California State Medical Society simply did not exist between 1860 and 1870.
In anticipation of the American Medical Association's scheduled meeting at San Francisco
in 1871, the California State Medical Society was reorganized in October of 1870. The
reorganized Society soon established its stability and relevance as a social,
intellectual and political group; papers were presented at every meeting and lobbying
efforts resulted in the first State Medical Practice law in 1876. There were continuing
membership problems, though, and by the turn of the century institutional and regional
rivalries (the Southern California Medical Society had been formed in 1888) had led to
consideration of a second reorganization. California sent delegates to the American
Medical Association's 1901 reorganization meeting in Indiana. As a result of this meeting
the AMA restructured, and the national organization of state units --including the
California Medical Association --came into being.
Scope and Content
These materials consist of the contents of a delegate's (J. B. de C. M. Saunders) packets
for annual sessions of the California Medical Association between 1964 and 1975:
documents, credentials, correspondence, memoranda, draft resolutions, agendas, reports,
handouts, notes, pamphlets and other items. Carton 1 also contains a folder of materials
on CMA annual sessions, 1925-1952, evidently collected by past Secretary of the Surgical
Section Dr. Lyman A. Brewer III. Carton 2 also contains four folders of CMA-related
materials.