Early radiology and the National Medical Association

Both the discovery of the x-ray and the founding of the National Medical Association (NMA) occurred in 1895. Radiologists have participated importantly in the NMA since the lecture of Dr Marcus F. Wheatland at the 1909 Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, which led to his election as president of the NMA for the following year. More recently, Dr Tracy M. Walton was president of the NMA in its centennial year. This article details early and continued participation in the NMA by radiologists, including the founding of the Section on Radiology in 1949, with its first chairman, Dr William E. Allen, Jr, longtime leader in radiology, the section, and the NMA.