1897 Beginnings

Founded in 1897 by a group of students from the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Mo., the American Osteopathic Association aimed to organize the efforts of individual physicians and colleges to advance the osteopathic medical profession. Originally called the American Association for the Advancement of Osteopathy, the name changed to the American Osteopathic Association in 1901. In that same year, C.M. Turner Hulett, DO, documented the 16 charter students in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. The committee created a constitution, and permanently established the association on April 19, 1897.

The AOA Mission according to the first president, Daniel B. McAuley, D.O.

"The reasons for the organization are many, are obvious, are strong; and personal protection is the least of these. No; the members of this organization have laid upon them a heavier responsibility, a greater duty, than the so-called "first law of nature," self-preservation. The primary objects of the organization are, in the broadest sense, to work toward and attain all things that will truly tend to the "advancement of Osteopathy," and the rounding of it into its destined proportions as the eternal truth and vital principle of therapeutic science."

To learn more about the founder of osteopathic medicine, read Andrew Taylor Still's Biography. For more information on the AOA's history, visit the History of Osteopathic Medicine Virtual Museum.