1917 CHICAGO COLLEGE OF MEDICINE DOCTOR'S DEGREES REAL?

Just got home from a estate sale I went to where I found the below.
They are supposedly 1917 doctor's degree/diplomas from the Chicago College of Medicine.
Are they real? I googled Chicago College Doctor Degree & then Chicago College of Medicine but couldn't find it?
They look real to me & antique diplomas are selling for $100's on eBay(!), so can someone tell me what I have here?
Thank you; I appreciate any help.

 

I can't say for certain the validity of these pieces, although from what I could find Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery merged with Loyola University School of Medicine in 1917. If they do happen to be genuine they'd surely be some of the last diplomae given out under the school name. A really fantastic find!

 

And it appears to have been awarded to a woman.

Debora

 

Here she is in 1917 in the Illinois Medical Blue Book.

https://books.google.com/books?id=W... college of medicine celia davis 1917&f=false

Debora

 

No reason to think they are fakes & very few women were admitted to medical school at that time, so think they may be good sellers indeed.

Valparaiso College, then Valparaiso University
Henry Baker Brown bought the American College of Medicine and Surgery from Northwestern University; he later changed the name to Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery. Students could save money by spending their first two medical college years in Valparaiso.[7]

In 1905 the university formed an affiliation with Chicago College of Dental Surgery to provide dental education for its students. For the next two decades, Valpo gained a national reputation as an economical institution of higher learning, earning its positive nickname The Poor Man’s Harvard. At the height of enrollment in 1907, it was the second-largest school in the nation, behind only Harvard University. In 1914, monthly literary magazine The Torch was founded; it became the university's weekly student newspaper in 1915.[8]

The university began intercollegiate athletic competition in 1916. Valpo's first game was a basketball game against the Chicago YMCA Training School, in which VU fielded players from intramural teams.[7]

In 1917, World War I and the death of President Brown took its toll, and the school was forced into bankruptcy.[9] Valparaiso University sold the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery to Loyola University Chicago. In 1923, a fire destroyed the original 1860 Old College Building, and VU could not afford to clean the site.[7] This was one of many financial problems Valparaiso faced in 1923, as President Horace M. Evans tried to settle a $375,000 debt. Evans appealed to the Rockefeller Foundation and other wealthy individuals before asking the Indiana state legislature to make VU public. The legislature refused, and Evans almost sold the university to the Invisible Hand of the Ku Klux Klan, but the deal was stopped due to "legal technicalities", likely cited to save face for both organizations.

Valparaiso University was eventually bought by the Lutheran University Association, a conglomerate of National Lutheran Education Alliance and American Luther League. [10][11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valparaiso_University

 

1917. Celia must have been one of the last doctors graduated while Chicago School of Medicine was still part of Valparaiso.

 

Of Russian Jewish heritage. Retired to Florida. Had descendants. Died in 1983.

Debora

 

Simply - WOW!
Well I got it at a estate sale here in Miami, Florida (the house had just been sold), so that adds to the credibility - maybe a child or grandchild ended up with them & then let them be sold along with house's possessions?

 

Two children. Daughter Norma and son David. Family name Yonover. Appears he's still alive. Lives/lived at 841 NE 182nd Terrace, North Miami Beach. Which raises the question... Does anyone have any privacy any more?

Debora

 

That is where I got them! Today was last day of estate sale & I was amazed that no one had taken them before me.
PS - I got a couple of other … unusual pieces I'm going to need help identifying!

 

Any idea if signatures are of anyone important? Any way to see a printed version of who signed the degrees? (and why so many signatures?)

 

Well, they're the signatures of the professors in all the major fields, including Syphilology, attesting to the new doctor's qualifications. Wonder how else you could be granted a degree other than 'By Examination'.

 

Maybe an Honorary Degree?

 

Hi,
I remember one degree in my Drs office with 17 or 18 signatures. i will have to exam better when I am next. My three degrees all have four signatures except for one which has two.
greg

 

Just enlarged signatures and saw Professor of Dermatology & Syphilology - what a class that must have been!