Battling a diploma mill: The early fight to preserve the osteopathic principles of A.T. still

Abstract

Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO, founded the first school of osteopathy, the American School of Osteopathy (ASO), in 1892. Two graduates from the second class of the ASO, Elmer and Helen Barber, opened the “second school of osteopathy,” the National School of Osteopathy (NSO), in 1895. The guiding principles of the NSO were vastly different than those of the ASO, and Still saw the Barbers as a threat to his founding osteopathic philosophy and their school as a “diploma mill.” In the present article, the author uses primary historical documents to detail the battle between the ASO and the NSO and thus provides a snapshot of the early fight to gain respect within the medical community.