[C.1910s Photograph of New York City’s “Flower Hospital” Ambulance at the Homeopathic Hospital’s Archway Entrance].

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New York City’s Flower Hospital was the first location where homeopathic medicine gained recognition by the federal government. It was established in 1889 as the Flower Free Surgical Hospital by New York Medical College which taught homeopathic medicine. It was named after then Congressman Roswell P. Flower (1835–1899), later Governor of New York, who helped fund it.

After 1908, the hospital was re-named New York Homeopathic Medical College and Flower Hospital. Around this time, the hospital began an automobile ambulance service. In the photograph, such an ambulance—with its driver and clinical attendant—can be seen at the hospital’s main, archway entrance near York Avenue and 63rd Street in Manhattan.

During the First World War, the Flower Hospital asked the authority of the Red Cross to organize an Army Base Hospital. At first, the U.S. Army was reluctant to accept homeopathic physicians and medicine. Due to the exigencies of the war and after convincing the Army of their abilities, Hospital Unit “N” was established at the Flower Hospital. This unit later became the United States General Hospital No. 5 at Fort Ontario, New York.

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