Nature’s Medicine Through Time™

A Landscape of Practices, Principles and Institutions

Highlighting the Profession of Naturopathic Medicine as Physicians of the Person-Centered Traditions

An Ongoing History Collaboration

Nature’s Medicine Through Time™

Explore the Historical Eras

This archive invites you to explore that long arc of innovation, continuity, and cultural wisdom. Move through time, notice the patterns, and follow the threads that still influence clinical thinking and practice today.

Ready to begin? Explore the Eras ⇒

2700BCE-999CE

Ancient Medicines
Roots and Streams

1000-1799

Emerging Classical and Folk Medicine Traditions
Rationalist and Empirical Physicians and the Therapeutic Relationship

1800-1899

American and European Medicine of the 19th Century
Popular Self-Care, Medical Pluralism and Professional Institutions

1900-1934

The Birth of Naturopathy
Social Movement and Drugless Physicians

1935-1955

Coalescence of Naturopathic Institutions
Professional Associations, Colleges, and Licensing

1956-1969

The Elders Seed a Renaissance
Suppression, Fragmentation and Resilience Amidst Conventional Medical Monopoly

1970-1997

From Naturopathy to Naturopathic Medicine
Re-Emerging Profession in an Evolving Cultural Context

1998-2018

Professionalization, Institutionalization and Collaboration
Naturopathic Medicine Matures in the Era of Whole Systems Sciences and Person-Centered Collaborative Care

2019 onward

Person-Centered Gaian Care
Natural Medicine Matures in Evolving Forms Globally
In Development…
Nature’s Medicine Through Time

Library and ReSources

This section brings together two of the three foundational pillars of Nature’s Medicine Through Time: the Library and ReSources. Together, they make visible the material ground beneath the project—what we have studied, referenced, and returned to in order to understand how medical knowledge is formed, transmitted, and reinterpreted across time.

Explore more below!

Library

Stay Tuned!

The Library at Nature’s Medicine Through Time houses an archive of historical images and scholarly PDF articles that serve as primary sources for the project’s research and visual documentation. These materials are not illustrative afterthoughts; they are the record itself.

The Library is coming soon in Phase II of our project.

ReSources

Sources: Bibliography, References And Resources
ReSources trace the intellectual and historical lineage behind the site. They include the texts, references, and materials that have shaped the site’s themes and informed the construction of its content, offering transparency into the influences and frameworks guiding this work.
4700+

Years of History

Tracing the Lineage of Natural Medicine

What is Nature’s Medicine Through Time?

We are a participatory educational resource exploring the evolution of healing traditions across cultures and time

Nature’s Medicine Through Time is a digital archive and learning platform dedicated to the study of medicine’s natural roots. Through carefully curated timelines, biographies, and institutional histories, the site illuminates the enduring lineage of ideas and practices that shape modern integrative and naturopathic medicine. Designed for students, educators, and practitioners alike, it invites curiosity about how knowledge, culture, and healing have intertwined across centuries—and continues to serve as a living reference for the education and advancement of the healing arts.

What Nature’s Medicine Through Time™ is Doing

Enriching Education by Honoring People, Practices, and Institutions

To educate students, practitioners, and the public about the continuity of clinical traditions and to rediscover the ongoing relevance of historical and philosophical roots.

Preserving Traditions for Clinical Application

To preserve the cultural, philosophical, and clinical heritage of person-centered medicine and living therapeutic practices that are hundreds of years old and still effectively used.

Documenting and Interpreting Historical Lineage

To connect modern practitioners and scholars with the origins and evolution of natural therapeutics with the common theme of respecting the self-healing processes of living systems.

Providing Institutional Support for Teaching and Practice

To foster learning and support teaching and reference use in classrooms, clinics, conferences, and institutional contexts.

Empowering Us to Co-Create History

Inspire curiosity and continuity by highlighting the shared roots and evolving wisdom that connect ancient healing traditions with contemporary natural medicine.

Professional Formation Process Framework

To clarify how professional identity in natural medicine is formed over time: through exposure to lineage, engagement with primary sources, participation in institutions, and the gradual maturation of clinical judgment within living traditions.

A Declaration

Deep Gratitude to and Respect for Those Who Have Contributed

We Honor the diverse cultural, indigenous, and traditional medical lineages that shaped Naturopathic Medicine and espress deep gratitude to key historical authors and texts that inform this Timeline.

Nature’s Medicine Through Time™

A Landscape of People and Practices,
Principles and Institutions

Designed, Developed and Curated by

Mitchell Bebel Stargrove, ND, LAc
Editor, Co-Author, and Resident Historian
National University of Natural Medicine
University of Western States
Oregon College of Oriental Medicine

Site Design and Implementation

Christopher Thombs, Fort Creative

Icons and Collages

Gwyllm Llwydd

With early contributions from

Pamela Snider, ND, Craig Stuart Mehrmann, MPH, ND; Hunter Peterson, ND; Amy Neil, MS, MAP; Kelsang Tenpa, MA; Kelsi Ervin, ND; Laura Cotton, ND; Craig Fasullo, ND; George Luciano Gonzales, ND; Madeline Foley, DACM; Jared Zeff, ND, LAc; Jared Skowron, ND; Roger Newman Turner, ND, DO, BAc; Stephen Myers, ND, BMed, PhD; Don Warren, ND; Rev. Steven Bailey, ND; David J. Schleich, PhD; George Cody; Eric Blake, ND, LAc; Sussanna Czeranko, ND; Iva Lloyd, ND; Tina Hausser, HP; Francis Brinker, ND; Prudence Broadwell, ND; Peter J. D’Adamo, ND; Laura Farr; Bruce Canvasser, ND; Matthew Wood, MSc (Herbal Medicine), RH (AHG);

And ongoing support from

American Association of Naturopathic Physicians; Oregon Association of Naturopathic Physicians; Washington Association of Naturopathic Physicians; National University of Natural Medicine; Bastyr University; National University of Health Sciences; Oregon College of Oriental Medicine; University of Western States; Institute for Natural Medicine; World Naturopathic Federation