Related Topics
Philadelphia Physicians
Philadelphia dominated the medical profession so long that it's hard to distinguish between local traditions and national ones. The distinctive feature is that in Philadelphia you must be a real doctor before you become a mere specialist.
Medical Club of Philadelphia
The Medical Club of Philadelphia was founded in the Nineteenth century, as a social club of doctors devoted to non-medical interests. Lots of famous names, here.
Great Depression (1929-1939)
New topic 2012-08-29 11:32:11 description
The Club grew robustly to the point where it attained a total of 1.393 members 1924 (In 1911 it had a thousand members compared to a total of forty thousand in the American Medical Association.) Exact figures are not available for all years. Some totals were taken from Annual Reports, but these figures are distorted by the fact that for many decades they continued to count persons who were two years delinquent in dues, as members. In some cases, they also counted applicants who had not paid any dues or admission fees. It was not until the 1970s that dues were collected before applicants were elected to membership.
For some years numbers were computed from records of dues & initiation fees paid. In other cases, where members were elected late in the year, their dues were credited both to the year paid and following year. Financial records are not available for some years, and in others, there simply are no records from which figures can be computed.
1893 570
1899 230
1900 313
1901 365
1902 460
1903 570
1904 644
1905 614
1906 640
1907 799
1908 846
1909 928
1910 931
1911 998
1912 1,010
1913 999
1914 1,042
1915
1916 1,107
1917 1,121
1918 1,067
1919 1,190
1920 1,211
1921 1,235
1922 1,205
1923
1924 1,393
1925 1,362
1926 1,359
1927 1,258
1928 1,329
1929 1,288
1930 1,348
1931 1,247
1932 1,159
1933 1,079
1934 982
1935 936
1936 910
1937 868
1938 821
1939 854
1940 860
1941 870
1942 767
1943 749
1944 748
1945 752
1946 765
1947 792
1948 990
1949 1,007
1950 965 (Dues increased
1951 942 from $5 to $10)
1952 958
1953 936
1954 924
1955 880
1956 876
1957 857
1958 800
1959 802
1960 799
1961 756
1962 724
1963 728
1964 703
1965 696
1966 684
1967 679
1968 671
1969 674
1970 654
1971 619
1972 629
1973 590
1974
1975 669
1976 555
1977 446 (Dues increased
1978 410 to $25)
1979 410
1980 412
1981 379
1982 387
1983 398
1984 329 (Dues increased
1985 409 to $35)
1986 390
1897 397
1988 387
1989 400
1990 398
1991 388
Originally published: Friday, March 20, 2009; most-recently modified: Thursday, May 23, 2019