Do you know when your chiropractic alma mater was founded? Most likely, yes. But are you familiar with the history of the other chiropractic institutions within the United States?

As we look back at chiropractic’s history, we have included a look at the colleges’ pasts. Here is an abbreviation of each:

Cleveland Chiropractic College

Cleveland Chiropractic College, which today comprises two campuses, one in Kansas City, Mo., and the other in Los Angeles, was founded in 1922 as the Central Chiropractic College by Palmer graduates Dr. C.S. Cleveland Sr; Dr. Ruth R. Cleveland; and Dr. Perl B. Griffin. It enrolled three students in its first class and graduated its first doctor of chiropractic in 1924.

• Incorporated in December 1922 as a nonprofit “benevolent association,” giving it the distinction of being the oldest surviving and continuously operating nonprofit chiropractic college.

• Renamed in 1924 as Cleveland Chiropractic College.

• Founder Dr. Cleveland Sr. was a vocal activist and provided expert testimony to help form the Chiropractic Practice Act that legally defined the profession as a distinct healing art in Missouri.

• Acquired Ratledge Chiropractic College in Los Angeles in 1951.

• In 1992 the two colleges joined together to form a multi-campus system and Dr. Carl Cleveland III assumed presidency of the system.

Western States Chiropractic College

Today’s Western States Chiropractic College was founded in 1904 as Marshes’ School and Cure by Drs. John and Eva Marsh. They incorporated and expanded the school in 1909, changing the name to Pacific College of Chiropractic. It was the first chiropractic college to set up a four-year program, the first to be transferred from private ownership to nonprofit status, the first to adopt a curriculum inclusive of all the basic sciences and the first to be awarded a federal research grant.

• Reorganized in 1932 and became Western States College.

• In 1937 the Health Research Foundation was formed as a nonprofit organization under which Western States College operated.

• The college relocated to southeast Portland in 1946 and in 1973 it moved to its current 22-acre campus in Portland.

• The school became Western States Chiropractic College in 1967.

• In 1986 the college opened a 9,000 square foot Outpatient Clinic on campus which functioned specifically as a teaching clinic. It is the largest chiropractic facility in the Northwest.

National College of Chiropractic

In 1906 John Fitz Allen founded the National School of Chiropractic in the Ryan Building in Davenport, Iowa, where, 12 years earlier, D.D. Palmer performed the first adjustment. National’s second graduating class, in 1907, consisted of nine people — all women — making chiropractic one of the first medical professions to embrace female practitioners.

• Relocated to Chicago in 1908. Cook County Hospital, the largest charity hospital in the world, was a block away, and National students were admitted to all clinics, autopsies and surgical operations. Cook County was the first and only medical hospital to admit chiropractic students into its diagnostic clinics and pathological laboratories from 1908 to 1924.

• In 1920 the college purchased the Chicago Theological Seminary as its fifth home and was renamed National Chiropractic College.

• Isolated from the hospital experience after 1924, National opened the best-equipped and most popular chiropractic and drugless therapy clinic in the world in 1927. Chicago General Health Services clinic could accommodate as many as 120,000 patients per year.

• National moved to its current location in Lombard, Ill., in May 1963. It was the first college campus ever constructed exclusively for chiropractic education.

New York Chiropractic College

Founded in 1919 by Dr. Frank Dean, New York Chiropractic College, formerly known as the Columbia Institute of Chiropractic, is the oldest chiropractic college in the Northeast. In 1954 the college merged with Columbia College of Chiropractic of Baltimore, Md., and 10 years later it merged with Atlantic States Chiropractic Institute of Brooklyn, N.Y.

• In 1976 the college was granted status as a Recognized Candidate for Accreditation by the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE). The college was accredited in 1979.

• A Provisional Charter was granted to the college in 1977 by the Regents of the University of the State of New York, made Absolute in 1979. That same year, the college acquired its corporate name — New York Chiropractic College.

• The Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools accredited NYCC in 1985.

Palmer Chiropractic University System

In February 1991, Palmer College of Chiropractic and Palmer College of Chiropractic West joined together to created the Palmer Chiropractic University System. In 2002, the two facilities were joined by a third — Palmer Florida in Port Orange, Fla. The System allows both colleges to operate as independent academic institutions while cooperating in many operational and administrative areas.

• D.D. Palmer’s years of independent research and study on human health and disease led to the science and art of chiropractic. The first classes of the Palmer School and Cure, later known as the Palmer Infirmary and Chiropractic Institute, were held in 1897.

• D.D. Palmer’s son, B.J. joined his father in conducting classes and headed the school from 1906 until his death in 1961. One of B.J.’s first acts was to incorporate the school and change the name to Palmer School of Chiropractic, chartered in 1907.

• B.J. brought the curriculum to 4,320 hours in four academic years by 1950.

• When B.J. died in 1961, his son David Palmer took over the presidency. David changed the school name to Palmer College of Chiropractic and laid the foundations for the college’s accreditation. Pre-professional studies of two years at a liberal arts college was also instituted as an admissions requirement.

• The college was accredited by the CCE in 1979 and by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in 1984.

Southern California University of Health Sciences

In 1911 Dr. Charles Cale applied for and received a charter for Los Angeles College of Chiropractic (LACC). He and his wife, Linnie, began classes in their home, a nine-month course of study that included anatomy, chiropractic principles and technique. Eleven years later the college moved to larger facilities and the curriculum was expanded to 18 months of study. During this period it also absorbed the Eclectic College of Chiropractic.

The Chiropractic Initiative Act of 1922 established legal requirements for chiropractic education in California.

• The next 28 years included curriculum improvements and expansions. The college acquired many institutions including the Golden State College of Chiropractic; Dr. Cale’s second school, Cale Chiropractic College; College of Chiropractic Physicians and Surgeons; Southern California College of Chiropractic; Hollywood College of Chiropractic; California College of Chiropractic; and the California College of Natural Healing Arts.

• The course of study was expanded to 32 months and in the late 1940s a nonprofit corporation, the California Chiropractic Educational Foundation, was organized.

• By 1950, the course of study had been expanded to four years and the college moved to Glendale, Calif., where it consolidated all of its basic science subjects and chiropractic sciences into one program taught at one facility.

• In the 1950s, LACC became the first and only chiropractic program to obtain accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and was one of the first chiropractic institutions to obtain federal grant money for research.

• The end of the twentieth century brought the acquisition of the College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (CAOM) and the Southern California University of Health Sciences was formed to house both CAOM and LACC.

University of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic

The University of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic (UBCC) was established in 1990 following licensure by the State of Connecticut of the University’s doctor of chiropractic degree program. The site was chosen because of is long history of chiropractic support.

• In 1991, renovations, including the creation of a human anatomy dissection laboratory, were completed in time to welcome the inaugural class of 16 students. A second class of 12 students was added in Spring, 1992.

• UBCC was accredited by the Connecticut Department of Higher Education in 1993, and by the CCE in 1994.

• The college converted the program to a traditional semester-based program in August 1994.

• In December 1994 the school graduated its inaugural class of 10 students. To date the college has graduated over 350 doctors of chiropractic.

Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic

Sherman College was founded on January 11, 1973 by Dr. Thom Gelardi. He named it after Dr. Lyle Sherman, a pioneer of modern chiropractic and the former assistant director of the B.J. Palmer Chiropractic Research Clinic in Davenport, Iowa.

• The first class graduated on September 18, 1976, the anniversary of the discovery of chiropractic.

• Today the college holds full accreditation from the CCE and its graduates practice across the country and the world.

• The goal of straight chiropractic is to correct vertebral subluxations so the nerve system can deliver the right information at the right time in the right amounts to each part of the body.

Texas Chiropractic College

Founded in 1908, Texas Chiropractic College is the third oldest chiropractic college in the nation. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to distribute a Level V doctoral degree, which is has retained continuously since 1971.

• Its first-of-its-kind Hospital Rotations Program is a pioneer in the integrated health field. The program provides interns the opportunity to rotate in nearly 30 hospitals and clinics.

• The school was purchased in 1918 by Dr. J.M. McLeese and his associates, who advocated a 12-month program and a broad scope of instruction, even to include surgery. The college was sold again in 1920, 1924 and finally in 1948 by its alumni association, who re-chartered the school as a nonprofit institution.

Life Chiropractic College West

Life Chiropractic College West offers a doctor of chiropractic program that students can complete in 12-14 quarters. Students are trained in over 12 techniques and are equipped with a strong background in the basic sciences and chiropractic philosophy.

• Life West is accredited by the CCE.

• Life West was founded in 1976 as Pacific States Chiropractic College. In March 1981, through the efforts of Dr. George Anderson, Dr. George Wentland and Dr. Sid Williams (founder of Life Chiropractic College, now Life University), Life Chiropractic College and Pacific States merged and was renamed Life Chiropractic College West.

Logan College of Chiropractic

Logan College of Chiropractic was founded in 1935 and was named after its founder and first president, Dr. Hugh Logan. Logan College was founded to provide an intensive and thorough training for students in chiropractic, including a full knowledge of the structure and foundation of the human body.

• In 1972 the college moved to its present location in Chesterfield, Missouri.

• Logan is accredited by the CCE as well as the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Parker College of Chiropractic

Named for its founder, James W. Parker, the school was an outgrowth of the Parker Chiropractic Research Foundation and the Parker School for Professional Success. Parker initially considered purchasing an already-established University that had not been around long, but ultimately decided to charter a new school. The school was incorporated in 1978 and a first campus of 63 acres was purchased in 1981. The first graduation was in 1985.

• Fundraising for the new school began at the Parker Seminars and the seminars themselves eventually became part of the college’s curriculum.

• The first class of 27 students at a second campus began classes in 1982.

• The school achieved regional accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1987 and by the CCE in 1988.

Life University

Life University was the creation of Dr. Sid Williams, a 1956 Palmer graduate. By 1960 Williams was teaching his practice-building techniques at Parker Seminars and during 1964-1970 he collaborated with a number of chiropractors in the formation of the nonprofit Life Foundation Inc. and its “Dynamic Essentials” seminars.

In 1972, he began publishing Today’s Chiropractic, which eventually became the property and voice of Life Chiropractic College.

• By 1974, the Life Foundation was considering forming a chiropractic college and inquired into the procedures for accreditation. By September of that year over $850,000 in pledges had been made for the new school and LCC was incorporated.

• The school opened its doors in 1975 in Marietta, Georgia with an inaugural class of 27 students.

• The school gained professional accreditation through the CCE in 1985 and regional accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1986.

• In 1989 the school broadened its academic offerings and was renamed Life College. The name was changed again to Life University when the school began offering a Bachelor of Science degree.

Northwestern Health Sciences University

Northwestern Health Sciences University, previously called Northwestern College of Chiropractic (NWCC), has been educating chiropractic students for over 60 years. It prides itself on standing independent from any one technique or philosophy of chiropractic. The school was chartered in June 1941, and began operations on the sixth floor of the W.T. Grant department store in downtown Minneapolis.

• John B. Wolfe was the principal founder of the college, and was a 50-percent shareholder in the institution.

• The first class consisted of 35 students, most of them transfers from Minnesota Chiropractic College, Wolfe’s alma matter.

• The first diplomas were awarded in December 1941.

• During World War II, the college stayed open by relying on volunteer teachers and student tutors, and reduced their program to evenings only.

• The first student to graduate the full NWCC program was Thomas Hove in 1944.