University at Buffalo Pan American Exposition Site 1901

UB Medical Students & the Exposition Hospital

The Exposition Hospital, also known as the "Emergency Hospital" owed its existence to Dr. Roswell Park, professor of surgery at UB who observed the need for such a facility at earlier expositions. He served as medical director of the Exposition Hospital and had a deputy medical director. Staffing was provided by nurses and recent graduates of the UB Medical School. Over the course of the Exposition, 5,400 persons received treatment at the Hospital on the grounds.

Serious cases were intended to be transported to the Buffalo General Hospital where complete surgical facilities were available. When the Exposition Hospital's most famous patient arrived by the Exposition's modern electric ambulance, however, doctors not affiliated with the Hospital determined that the President must be operated on immediately. And so it was that President McKinley's surgery took place in the poorly lit and inadequately equipped operating room on the Exposition grounds by a physician who had never operated on a gunshot wound before. To follow the medical events of that day and read the official autopsy, visit the "Assassination" area of the UB Libaries' "Illuminations" online exhibit.

Medical Record (April 1901): "Emergency Hospital for the Pan American Exposition" -design details of the hospital

Buffalo Medical Journal (September 1901):
"The Exposition in its Medical Aspects" - overview of how the Exposition Hospital was operated

"It is to the great credit of the medical director, Dr. Roswell Park [UB faculty member], that he insisted on the construction of a proper hospital, - a triumph which was obtained over much opposition, we believe. The wisdom of building the hospital was over and over again demonstrated, but especially in the case of President McKinley, where the operation on him was made within two hours after the wounds were inflicted."

-editorial from the Buffalo Medical Journal October 1901

Here are images of the Exposition Hospital
Click on any image to view a larger version.

Map of Exposition showing Hospital	Photo of Hospital	Staff of Hospital	Hospital Operating Room
Roswell Park, M.D. organizer of Exposition Hospital	Hospital's Electric Ambulance	Click to view images of UB Medical School

Special thanks to Chris Densmore and Rodney Obien of the University Archives for their assistance; also to Linda Lohr, head of the History of Medicine collection at the UB libraries. Photos from various private sources and from "Another Era: A Pictorial History of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences State University of New York 1846- 1946"

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Last updated January 5, 2001