In the summer of 2024 while remodeling his Vermont home, a Burlington resident made a surprising discovery. Nestled within a wall, he uncovered a paper program for an address delivered by Dr. Jacob Chase Rutherford to the medical department at the University of Vermont (UVM) on February 26, 1891. At the time the address was given, the Medical College at UVM was already almost 70 years old, having graduated its first class in 1823.
The address provides a window into those times. The world those students and doctors practiced in, and the nature of their medical education, is so very different from present-day society and the complex curriculum now used to prepare students to serve their future patients. While the vocabulary, text and tone of the address are most certainly of their time, it does serve as a historical reminder of the changes and progress society has made since 1891.
The document is fragile and stained, but for the most part perfectly legible and can be read in its entirety above.
