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A short history of chiropractic
From a one-room office in Iowa to a licensed profession in more than 90 countries: how chiropractic began, what it fought through, and what it has become.
A deaf janitor in Davenport, Iowa
On September 18, 1895, Daniel David Palmer, a magnetic healer, adjusted a bump on the spine of Harvey Lillard, a janitor who had lost much of his hearing years earlier. Lillard reported that his hearing improved. Palmer named the new practice chiropractic, from the Greek for "done by hand."
The first school
Palmer opened the Palmer School of Chiropractic in Davenport. Early classes were small and the curriculum was short. The school still operates today as Palmer College, and Davenport remains the profession's birthplace.
B.J. Palmer takes over
D.D. Palmer's son, Bartlett Joshua Palmer, took control of the school and became the profession's great promoter, building it into a large institution, adding radio broadcasting, and introducing X-ray to chiropractic in 1910. Father and son disagreed bitterly about the direction of the profession.
The first license
Kansas became the first state to license chiropractors. In the decades that followed, thousands of chiropractors were arrested for practicing medicine without a license, and the fight for recognition was fought state by state.
Straights and mixers
The profession split between "straights," who held that chiropractic should treat only the spine and its effect on the nervous system, and "mixers," who added physiotherapy, exercise and nutrition. Most modern practices, including this one, descend from the mixer tradition.
The Committee on Quackery
The American Medical Association formed a Committee on Quackery whose stated goal was to contain and eliminate chiropractic. Physicians were barred from referring to or associating with chiropractors.
Medicare coverage
The United States Congress added chiropractic manipulation of the spine to Medicare, a milestone in federal recognition. (This practice does not currently accept Medicare patients.)
Fifty states
Louisiana became the last state to license chiropractors, and the Council on Chiropractic Education received federal recognition as the accrediting body for chiropractic colleges. Four-year postgraduate doctoral programs became the standard.
Wilk v. AMA
A federal judge ruled that the American Medical Association had engaged in an unlawful conspiracy to restrain the chiropractic profession. The ruling was upheld on appeal in 1990, and cooperation between physicians and chiropractors became normal rather than forbidden.
Guidelines name spinal manipulation
The U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research published guidelines on acute low back pain that listed spinal manipulation among the recommended treatments, one of the first major government endorsements of the evidence.
World Health Organization guidelines
The WHO published guidelines on basic training and safety in chiropractic, setting international standards for education and describing the profession's place in health systems worldwide.
Mainstream guidance
The American College of Physicians recommended that patients with low back pain try non-drug treatments first, naming spinal manipulation alongside exercise, heat and massage. Chiropractors now work in hospitals, veterans' health systems and professional sports teams.
An evidence-based profession
Chiropractic is practiced in more than 90 countries. The modern evidence-based chiropractor examines first, uses manipulation where it helps, combines it with exercise and soft-tissue care, and refers out when the problem is not musculoskeletal. That is the practice you will find on West 45th Street.
Where the word comes from
Chiropractic combines the Greek cheir, hand, and praktikos, done or practiced. The name was suggested to D.D. Palmer by a patient, the Reverend Samuel Weed, in 1896. Manual treatment of the spine itself is far older: Hippocrates described spinal manipulation in the fifth century BC, and bonesetters practiced across Europe and Asia for centuries before Palmer.
What has changed, and what has not
The original theory, that misaligned vertebrae ("subluxations") interfere with nerve flow and cause disease throughout the body, has not held up to research, and most chiropractic colleges now teach a musculoskeletal model: joints that are restricted or irritated cause pain and altered movement, and restoring motion helps. What has not changed is the method. An adjustment delivered in 2026 looks much like one delivered in 1926, and it still works best for the same problem it was first used for: a spine that hurts.