Medical Department of the University of Arkansas

The Medical Department of the University of Arkansas was founded in September 1879 at the old Sperindio Hotel on West Second Street. The first physicians and charter members of the Medical Department were Edwin Bentley, Augustus L. Breysacher, James Dibrell, Philo O. Hooper, Roscoe Greene Jennings, John McAlmont, James Southall, and Claibourne Watkins.

The Medical Department combined with the College of Physicians and Surgeons Medical School in 1911. During the Great Depression the school moved to the building presently occupied by the Bowen School of Law near MacArthur Park. In 1956 the school moved to its present location and became known as University Hospital, and later as the University of Arkansas Medical Center (UAMC) and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).