Pictorial history celebrates the ADAs first 150 years

The ADA is kicking off the new year with the launch of the distinctive new hardcover book, 150 Years of the American Dental Association: A Pictorial History, 1959-2009.

The 200-page, 9-by-12-inch book comes complete with historic photos, images and anecdotes that tell the story of how dentistry and the ADA have been intertwined in the past 15 decades of American history. All proceeds from book sales go to the ADA Foundation, thanks to Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Co., which underwrote the book’s production costs.

“Every member should display the book proudly in their waiting rooms,” said Dr. Walter Lamacki, chair of the ADA Sesquicentennial Planning Committee, who heaped praise on the book subcommittee, including reviewers Drs. Jack Conley, Jack Gottschalk and Jeanne Sinkford, and consultants Drs. Malvin Ring and Clifton O. Dummett.

“This beautiful book encapsulates our profession’s commitment to the health of the American people for 150 years,” said Dr. Lamacki. “Nearly three years in writing, the book is a perfect example of dedicated staff working with volunteers to produce a button-busting result.”

“Without the ADA, dentistry would be a trade, not a profession,” added Dr. Ron Tankersley, ADA president. “This book documents the highlights of our first 150 years and chronicles the tremendous challenges and successes of those who preceded us. Our members will find many items in the book surprising and enlightening. Few of us fully appreciate how far we have come and how we got here. This book also serves as a reminder that the future of the dental profession in the United States is now in our hands.”

Many involved in the project call it a historical treasure. The book concentrates on the past 50 years, said Dr. Conley, the former editor of the Journal of the California Dental Association, and associate professor (retired), University of Southern California School of Dentistry.

“There is some valuable history about the development of dentistry in this country,” Dr. Conley said, “but above all, it’s a pictorial history and members in particular will have great interest in the photographs of various leaders and events of the past.”

The volume traces the history of the ADA through photos, timelines, features and sidebars鈥攆rom the founders’ early mission to establish dentistry as a learned profession, to its evolution as a voice for one of the most trusted professions and an advocate for quality oral health care for all Americans. From the beginning, the founders cemented the ADA as the voice of an independent profession with high professional standards.

“The ADA was the first national organization to establish ethics in dentistry,” said Dr. Ring, author and editor emeritus of the Journal of the History of Dentistry, and professor emeritus (retired) at the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine, New York. “At the time, there was slipshod dentistry and charlatanism. This organization put dentistry on an ethical basis and real professional basis.”

Throughout the book are stories that show the convergence of the ADA with American history. There’s the story of the “vulcanite litigations” from the 19th century which ended in the murder of businessman Josiah Bacon by dentist Samuel Chalfant, and the struggle over New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Grand Ballroom during the ADA’s 100th birthday in 1959. The Association faced off with the city of New York and the U.S. State Department over use of the ballroom, which the city wanted in order to host Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. But the ADA had the ballroom under contract and refused to back down. In a massive show of support for the ADA, scores of people sent letters, telegraphs and postcards鈥攚hich now reside in the ADA archives鈥攚ith scathing comments for the communist leader.

The book also chronicles the people and pioneers who laid the groundwork for modern dentistry and the ADA, including Dr. Robert Tanner Freeman, the first African American to earn a dental degree; Dr. Rufus Beshears, the first African American member of the ADA; and Dr. Harold Hillenbrand, ADA chief administrative officer (1946-67).

The story of Lucy Hobbs Taylor is another point of pride for the profession, said Dr. Gottschalk, “especially in light of the high numbers of women practicing dentistry and in our dental schools today.”

The first woman to receive a dental degree (in 1866), Dr. Taylor was rebuffed time and again in her efforts to gain entry to dental school until Dr. Jonathan Taft, dean of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, admitted her in 1865. Dr. Taft was ADA president in 1868-69.

“The history of dentistry gives a broad scope of where we’ve been and how far we’ve come,” said Dr. Gottschalk, chair emeritus of the National Museum of Dentistry Board of Visitors and a founder of the American Academy of the History of Dentistry. “When you chart these events, you can see that we have so much to proud of.”

Dr. Dummett, author and distinguished professor emeritus, University of Southern California School of Dentistry, spoke of another luminary whose impact is felt to this day. Dr. Arthur D. Black, dean of the Northwestern University Dental School (and son of G.V. Black), was key in establishing the ADA as a tripartite organization. Welcoming as ADA members those who joined state and local societies helped to grow membership and created a strong national association that had broad support from the dental community.

“It’s not only important for dentists to have an idea of where we come from but also to recognize that we didn’t have an easy time at the beginning,” Dr. Dummett said.

The fact that Dr. Arthur Black, a dentist and physician, maintained that dentistry was able to stand on its own feet separate from medicine also “had a profound impact. He forged this idea that we were a self-supporting profession, which holds to this day,” said Dr. Dummett.

The vision for the Association that was created 150 years ago “has indeed put the American Dental Association today at the apogee of all professional associations,” said Dr. John S. Findley, the ADA immediate past president who authored the book’s forward.

“This book vividly and factually illustrates the efforts of the founders and the successors, men and women, who came together and found in each other and their profession the need and the resolve to form an association in order to move the profession to greater levels of respect, prominence and success in the provision of health care,” said Dr. Findley. “We are challenged by that enviable position, our rich heritage and by the memory of our founders to do more and to be more as professionals, through our American Dental Association.”

Many involved in the project expressed their gratitude for the work of ADA staff members Mary Kreinbring, director of the ADA Library, and Andrea Matlak, ADA archivist.

“We need to honor those without whom dentistry would not look so good,” Dr. Dummett said of Ms. Kreinbring and Ms. Matlak.

150 Years of the American Dental Association: A Pictorial History, 1959-2009 is now available for sale, and can be ordered through the ADA Catalog (www.adacatalog.org; Item J105, or call 1-800-947-4746). Member price is $49.95 and nonmember price, $74.95.