Historical Notes

Abstract

The generally accepted history of the Radiological Society of North America attributes the site of the earliest organizational meeting to the St. Louis radiology offices of Dr. Miles B. Titterington; these offices had previously been occupied by Dr. Russell D. Carman prior to his relocation in Rochester, Minnesota. The meeting was held December 15 and 16, 1915, and among those present were Titterington, Edward C. Ernst, M.D., Gray C. Briggs, M.D. of St. Louis, and Fred S. O'Hara, M.D. of Springfield, Illinois (1). Ernst is credited with arranging this special meeting because he “felt the time was ripe for the formation of an independent central or western roentgen society (2).” In a separate communication, Ernst recollects the new organization was to be a mid-western or western roentgen society (3). The rapid growth of this embryonic radiological organization astonished all concerned, and by 1918 the Western Roentgen Society, soon to be renamed the Radiological Society of North America, had surpassed in size the well-established, more senior American Roentgen Ray Society, with a membership of 472 in 38 states. On November 22, 1918, the name and by-laws were changed to reflect the wide geographical base of the rapidly increasing membership, and the Radiological Society of North America came into being. From a historical viewpoint it should be noted that Benjamin H. Orndoff, third and last president of the society under its Western Roentgen Society title, credits a Central Radiological Society as a short-lived predecessor of the Western Roentgen Society (4). Although we may never be able to resolve completely whether our RSNA parent organization was designated “Western”, “Mid-western”, or “Central”, the radiologists who created this new radiological society are to be complimented on their foresight, their dedication, and their organizational ability.