The University of Tennessee College of Medicine was founded in Nashville in 1879 when an agreement was entered into with the medical department of the University of Nashville (organized October 11, 1850) under which the two medical schools were operated together as a joint medical department for two years as the Joint Medical Department of the University of Nashville and University of Tennessee. The University of Nashville (as Davidson Academy) and Blount College were the two institutions that received the proceeds from the Compact of 1806. (Davidson Academy became Cumberland College at that time and Blount College became East Tennessee College.) The medical schools of both universities were founded by the same men: Drs. J. Berrien Lindsley, Paul F. Eve Sr., and W. K. Bowling. They were prominent in the histories of both schools.
The trustees of the University of Nashville named the University of Tennessee its legal successor in medical teaching and transferred its equipment to UT. In fall 1911 the UT College moved to Memphis and, during that year, absorbed the Memphis College of Physicians and Surgeons. The Pharmacy School was also transferred from Knoxville to Memphis. In 1913 the College of Medicine absorbed the Memphis Hospital Medical College, and in 1914, when the medical department of Lincoln Memorial University was discontinued, the UT College of Medicine took the LMU students and carried them along with their own.
In 1914 the college was rated Class A by the Council on Medical Education, and at about the same time became a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges. It was fully recognized by the board of regents of the State of New York and by the Confederation of State Medical Boards. In 1953 and 1954, it was the nation’s largest medical school.