Often we receive queries from individuals trying to trace ancestors who attended the University of Maryland prior to 1920, when the Maryland General Assembly merged the College Park and Baltimore campuses of the UM system into the beginnings of what is today’s 13-campus network. Since the College Park campus was originally known as the Maryland Agricultural College, then the Maryland State College of Agriculture, and not the University of Maryland until the merger, we had to refer these questions to the archivist on our sister campus to the north. Now the Special Collections of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library has mounted an Alumni Database that will help track early UM graduates and verify their name, year of graduation, and school.
Data from the 1840s to the 1980s has been mounted thus far. Schools included are:
Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, Baltimore Medical College Dental Department, Maryland Dental College, and University of Maryland Dental Department
Baltimore Medical College, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, University of Maryland School of Medicine
University Hospital Training School for Nurses
The database is available at: http://www.hshsl.umaryland.edu/resources/historical/alumni.cfm
More detailed information for entries in the database or verification of names not yet entered may be obtained by contacting Richard Behles, the Historical Librarian on the Baltimore campus, at rbehles@hshsl.umaryland.edu.
Rich provided an additional tip about searching the database on November 30, 2011, noting that many of the graduates’ names are listed using only initials for their first and middle names. If a search for an individual’s full name is not successful, repeat the search using the first initial and last name.
