Article: The history of Minnesota chiropractic education and the archives at Northwestern Health Sciences University

Chiropractic was founded by D. D. Palmer, who performed his first spinal adjustments in 1895 and started the first chiropractic school, the Palmer School and Cure, in 1897, both in Iowa.1  Diplomas granted to early graduates proclaimed them competent to teach and practice chiropractic, and many of these newly minted chiropractors did just that, often tutoring individuals and small groups in offices and clinics rather than setting up school buildings.2  For many of these tutorial schools, whether they had any graduates or even any students is unknown, and some schools were known to have been diploma mills3 (teaching chiropractic by correspondence course seems like a questionable proposition).  However, many other schools operated by the standards for a quality course of study as defined at that time.4 The earliest school teaching chiropractic technique that is known to have been in operation in Minnesota was the National School of Neuropathy & Psycho-Magnetic Healing, located in Minneapolis in 1899.5  Including tutorial schools, approximately 30 schools operated in the state from 1899 to NWCC’s founding in 1941.6  The total number of schools operating is difficult to gauge with precision, as some underwent slight name changes and others adopted names nearly identical to those of other schools.  Many schools seem to have been in existence for no more than a year or two.7 Four early Minnesota chiropractic schools are known to have operated for at least a decade.