Though Dartmouth College as a whole was financially strapped, the Board approved the request, and Smith began lecturing on November 22, 1797.

[7] For much of its early life, the school consisted only of Nathan Smith and a small class of students, operating in borrowed space at Dartmouth College.

As time passed, however, the popularity of both the medical instruction and the basic sciences taught at the school drew undergraduates and training physicians alike.

Soliciting funds from the state of New Hampshire, Smith was able to obtain medical equipment and, by 1811, a dedicated physical plant for the school.

Former students of Nathan Smith's replaced him on the faculty, drawing medical professionals in the northeast such as Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. to join them.

The first hospital at the school was founded by DMS alumnus Dixi Crosby in 1838, who used it to integrate academic instruction with hands-on patient care.

Under Frost, the curriculum sustained another revamping, this time into a four-year program that included clinical and academic training.

At the time, the discipline emphasized "bedside teaching" and providing students experience with a broad variety of illnesses and patients.

Although the school was well regarded for preparing students for clinical education at other institutions, its faculty was criticized for its apparent disinterest in research.

[7] Tenney more than doubled the size of the faculty and the student body, added several new departments, and oversaw the construction of five new campus buildings by 1964.

The three-year project, completed at the cost of $228 million, served as a replacement for the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, which was partially demolished in the early 1990s.

The curriculum, still in place today, seeks to promote small classes, reduce the amount of lectures, and offer students extensive interactive experience with patients.

[27] Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, in nearby Lebanon, New Hampshire, is the primary affiliated teaching hospital of the Geisel School of Medicine.

[30] In addition to on-campus instruction in Hanover and Lebanon, third- and fourth-year students may choose from 75 regional sites for their clerkships.

[1] Most clerkship facilities are located in central New England, although students are also able to clerk at sites in Alaska, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Florida.

[32] The final year is spent on additional clerkships, the designation of an area of focus, and preparation for a post-graduation residency.

[39] In 2021, the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) granted the Geisel School of Medicine a full eight-year term of accreditation, the longest available.

[43] Part of the larger institution, the Geisel School of Medicine is ultimately administered by Dartmouth's president and Board of Trustees.

[48] According to The Princeton Review, the small class size at Geisel helps to establish "a strong sense of community and collaborative spirit.

[51] Notable current faculty include Stuart Gitlow,[52] palliative care physician Ira Byock,[50] former astronaut and Democratic politician Jay C. Buckey,[53] psychoanalyst Peter A. Olsson,[54] and Jay Dunlap, professor and chair of genetics at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Notable former faculty include biochemist Mahlon Hoagland,[55] pathologist and geneticist Kurt Benirschke,[56] and former Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop.