PDA 150TH ANNIVERSARY
This commemorative issue of the Pennsylvania
Dental Journal is dedicated to our members and
your dental teams all over this great state. It is
you and your predecessors who have built the
150-year legacy of the Pennsylvania Dental
Association that we celebrate in 2018.
In this PDJ we remember the decades of
accomplishments and milestones, and reflect on
the challenges and changes that have helped
shape PDA. We do it largely through the memories
of many of our esteemed leaders. Throughout the
issue you’ll see excerpts of interviews conducted
with former presidents, speakers of the house
and other leaders, where we asked about their
most memorable experiences, the defining
moments for PDA, the greatest achievements of
the profession and what advice they have for new
dentists today. We are also pleased to have our
three award-winning editors emeritus, Dr. Judith
McFadden, Dr. Richard Galeone, and Dr. Bruce
Terry, providing their perspective.
In addition to 150 years worth of publications
and photographs, one particular book provided
a goldmine of information that greatly enhanced
our research, and that was a special issue of the
Pennsylvania Dental Journal, titled “History of
Dentistry in Pennsylvania,” written by former PDA
president Dr. Isaac Sissman, published in March
1968. Dr. Sissman’s historical account of the early
years and decades of this organization provided
a great foundation for capturing the origins of
organized dentistry in Pennsylvania.
We also learned via the first publication of
Transactions Of The Pennsylvania State Dental
Society, published in 1875, that the formation of
this organization on December 1, 1868, “was not
the result of a preconceived idea that was worked
up and developed by a succession of conferences
and meetings held for that purpose by its
authors. Nor was the usual mental labor of the
plan and objects of such movements bestowed
upon it. It sprung, almost Phoenix-like, from the
deliberations of a body of men, met together
in a small town in the interior of the state for
mutual, social and scientific improvement in the
profession of dentistry.
“A convention of dentists, consisting of the
Harris Dental Association of Lancaster, the
Lebanon Valley Dental Society and a number of
professional gentlemen from other local societies,
was held at the Lititz Springs in July, 1868. The
formation of an extended or general organization
was in no way connected with the inception of
this movement, but the idea being suggested in
the progress of the proceedings was at once acted
upon, with the most happy results.”
Finally, a note of appreciation. The information
and images presented in this issue came about
not just through the research and work of PDA
staff, but through the generous assistance of other
PDA leaders as well as the dedicated staff of our
component societies. Many thanks to all of you
who contributed to this issue and helped us bring
150 years of history to life.
MARCH/AP RIL 2018 | P EN N SYLVAN IA DEN TAL JOURNAL
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