The Cooper Medical College collection consists primarily of ephemeral material such as commencement invitations, programs, and addresses from Cooper Medical College and its predecessors, the Medical College of the Pacific, and Toland Medical College. Also included are several printed lectures from the Medical College of the Pacific, 1861-1879, annual reports, medical publications, faculty handbooks, clippings, and an alumni directory.

The Medical Department of the University of the Pacific was the first medical school on the West Coast, founded in San Francisco in 1858 by Dr. Elias Samuel Cooper. Following the death of Dr. Cooper in 1862, the program was suspended. In 1864, Dr. Hugh Huger Toland founded Toland Medical College in San Francisco, which later became the medical department of the University of California. By 1872 the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific was reorganized as the Medical College of the Pacific in affiliation with University (City) College. In 1882 Dr. Levi Cooper Lane generously donated a state of the art building to the medical school and the name of the school was subsequently changed from the Medical College of the Pacific to Cooper Medical College in honor of Dr. Lane's uncle, Dr. Elias Samuel Cooper. In 1908, Dr. Lane granted permission for the equipment and properties of Cooper Medical College to be transferred to Stanford University. Instruction by Stanford University began in 1909 and continued in San Francisco until 1959, at which time the Stanford School of Medicine opened on the Stanford campus.

0.75 Linear feet