Department Publications

Department History (1858—2006)

1858-1912 1913-1930 1931-1942  1943-1958 1959-1968 1969-1970 1971-1985 1986-2008

Ophthalmology at Illinois—by Patricia Spain Ward

From the very beginning, when the University of Illinois College of Medicine opened in 1882 as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago, Ophthalmology at the College has associated itself--sometimes distantly, sometimes intimately - with the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, already twenty-four years old when the College was born. Indeed, the story of Ophthalmology and Illinois is, to a large extent, the story of the Infirmary. Like the best of stories, this one has villains as well as heroes. It is, by turns, happy and tragic, marked by successes, but also by chances missed and the road not taken; by unthinkable events that could not have happened--but did happen, again and again.

Always, as a continuing theme up to the recent past, the story of Ophthalmology at Illinois, like that of the Infirmary itself, speaks of human energy and dedication reaching out to meet massive, urgent, human need, despite lack of staff and funds, inadequate or obsolete facilities and equipment, administrative indifference and political obstruction. From the 19th century until 1970, it is more often than not the story of research energies deflected, blunted or deferred by pressures of service in the face of insufficient resources.

At the age of 127 years in May, 1985, the Infirmary is the oldest constituent unit of the College of Medicine, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, even--perhaps--of the entire University, whose founding the Infirmary antedates by nearly a decade. Known far beyond the confines of Chicago and Illinois, the Infirmary has long been distinguished as a center for patient care. In recent decades it has established itself as a noted research center as well.

In the words of former Hospital Director Donald Caseley, the Infirmary is "bizarre" and "unique" in its administrative history. It is also the focus of a singular elan among those whom it has served as a school of ophthalmology. Facilities for professional training rarely inspire such warmth of comradeship, long nourished in the Infirmary's years of adversity, now persisting into its happier present. In this respect too the infirmary is unusual. This venerable institution not only reflects the story of Ophthalmology at Illinois; it also furnishes us a tale of the best time and the worst times in the University's prolonged, circuitous quest for a hospital to match its medical school.