Atlantic Conjunctures in Anglo-American Neurology: Lewis H. Weed and Johns Hopkins Neurology, 1917–1942

The emergence of neurology at Johns Hopkins presents a case study for reconsidering the international and institutional contexts of neurology generally. Using a variety of sources, Hopkins’s interwar plans for neurology are presented and contextualized in the international environment of neurology, medical research, and philanthropy. During this period, neurology across the world, especially in Britain, was undergoing vast institutional changes. In order for Hopkins to remain at the forefront of excellence in both medicine and medical education, a program in neurology was deemed essential, and this would seem now to have been an unproblematic advance. Spearheading the project for the establishment of neurology at Hopkins was the dean of the medical school, Lewis H. Weed. Weed attempted from 1919 until 1942 to establish a department of neurology but had only limited success. The fact that finding support proved challenging for Weed and Johns Hopkins casts a provocative light on the broader historiography of neurology and illustrates the important role of the international context in defining neurology professionally.