Contrary Origins
In 1920, Dr. Crane started the Medical Historical Society as a group for the study and sharing of medical history. This group would meet with an audience of school faculty, medical students, nursing students, and medical staff, and give presentations on their chosen topic of medical history. Many students participated in this group, delivering biographical sketches of famous physicians, for course credit. In special occurrences, the group would also host guest speakers.
The Osler Society was created not an extension of the Medical Historical Society, but as a separate entity. It was designed to highlight an elite group of high achieving students in the Medical School and give them the opportunity to study medical history in a different setting.
It is difficult to set an exact date for when the Osler Society was first established. The society held its first meeting and signed its Constitution on March 21, 1927, but there is suggestion it existed before this. Crane had discussed the formation of a new club in the years before it was signed into being, after the success of the Medical Historical Society. One story suggests the naming of the club was proposed by charter member Wray Lloyd in 1926. In some newspaper clippings from Dr. Crane’s many obituaries, it is suggested that the club originated in 1925. In the Osler Society fonds, there is also a photograph of the Osler Society members listed in its charter with the date of 1926 crossed out, and “1925” re-written in what is suspected to be Dr. Crane’s handwriting.