09/28/2026
🏺ARTIFACT OF THE WEEK🔍
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In our collection we have seventeen lecture tickets belonging to Dr. O.F. Moran who attended Atlanta Medical College. He was a practicing doctor in the Milledgeville area in the late 19th century through the mid-twentieth century. These lecture cards show the wide array of classes Moran took, ranging from General anatomy, matriculation, diseases of the eyes and throat, to obstetrics and diseases of women and children.
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Medical students in the 19th century did not pay a flat tuition for medical school, instead they bought individual lecture tickets directly from each professor/doctor teaching the course. Professors kept the profit from these tickets as their income, after paying rent to the college dean. These tickets typically costed $10-$15 per subject in the 1800s, which is equivalent to about $380-$570 today!
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The use of lecture tickets began to decline in prestigious universities, such as Harvard, in the 1870s following major reforms. These institutions replaced the ticket lecture system with multi-year curricula, laboratory work, and fixed faculty. The initial ticket system was flawed, and encouraged schools to pass students easily. Because professors profited from selling more tickets, lax academic standards were applied to the students. The ticket system would be more widely abandoned by 1910.
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For more information on lecture tickets, click the following link! https://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-history/medical-lecture-tickets/
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