HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Founding of the American Psychoanalytic Association

Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland

Marker Inscription

The american psychoanalytic association was founded at this site on may 9, 1911 by james j. putnam, m.d., president; ernest jones, ll.d. secretary and drs. trigant burrow, ralph c. hamill john taccurdy, adolf meyer. g.lane takeyhill and g. alexander young to further the knowledge of doctor siglund freud's pioneering work. dedicated on may 9,1976 during the 65th annual meeting of the american psychoanalytic association.

Erected by American Psychoanalytic Association

The Story

On May 9, 1911, a small group of physicians gathered in Baltimore to found the American Psychoanalytic Association, dedicated to advancing the then-radical ideas of Sigmund Freud in the United States. Its founders included the neurologist James J. Putnam as president and the Welsh analyst Ernest Jones as secretary, alongside pioneering American figures like Adolf Meyer. The plaque was dedicated in 1976 during the association's 65th annual meeting.

Why it matters

This marks the American beginning of an organized psychoanalytic profession that would reshape how the nation understood the human mind through the 20th century.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • Β· James J. Putnam
  • Β· Ernest Jones
  • Β· Adolf Meyer
  • Β· Sigmund Freud

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Ernest Stebbins

Baltimore, MD

For four decades Ernest Stebbins led the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, training generations of specialists who carried public-health work around the globe. He helped found the American Board of Preventive Medicine and advised the young World Health Organization as it took shape after World War II.

Daniel Coit Gilman

Baltimore, MD

Daniel Coit Gilman was the first president of Johns Hopkins University and the first director of its hospital, positions from which he reinvented American higher education. Championing original research and graduate study, he built an institution modeled on the pursuit of new knowledge rather than rote instruction. His example reshaped universities across the country.

William H. Halsted

Baltimore, MD

William H. Halsted was among the most influential surgeons in American history and one of the "Big Four" who founded the clinical services at Johns Hopkins. He introduced careful, tissue-sparing surgical techniques and a rigorous residency system that transformed the operating room from a place of speed into one of precision.

Howard Atwood Kelly

Baltimore, MD

Howard A. Kelly helped establish modern gynecologic surgery and was among the first American physicians to use radium to treat cancer. As one of the "Big Four" founding professors of the Johns Hopkins medical faculty, he brought new rigor and inventiveness to the operating room in the era when American medicine was becoming a science.