Celebrating 130 Years of Excellence

Welcome to our new interactive timeline, Making History Together. We are delighted to bring you this glimpse into our collective past and to show you how JBJS and the field of orthopaedic surgery have evolved over the last century. We have designed this site to be both informative and entertaining, and we hope that it helps you to feel more closely connected to those who paved the way for current and future orthopaedic surgeons.

While orthopaedics emerged in the mid-to-late 1700s, the field really began to coalesce in the late 1800s, as surgeons started gathering in the United States and abroad to share their insights and best practices. In 1889, to help disseminate information from these international meetings to those who could not attend in person, the American Orthopaedic Association launched a journal that would eventually become The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. Today, JBJS stands as the premier journal in the field of orthopaedic surgery, and the JBJS organization has firmly established itself as the best resource for helping orthopaedists acquire and maintain knowledge, improve their practice, and earn certification throughout their careers.

Rediscover Early Innovations

As you peruse the timeline, take a moment to learn about some of the early discoveries that were first described in the pages of JBJS. Try to put yourself in the shoes of those early Editors-in-Chief who, as leaders of a small academic journal, painstakingly reviewed and edited paper manuscripts before manually cutting and pasting them onto pages – a process much different than today’s real-time electronic exchanges and online publishing practices.

Share the excitement of early innovations and see how surgical approaches and technologies have advanced over the years. From W.P. Blount’s review of osteochondrosis deformans tibiae in 1937, to Guillaume Bacle et al.’s study of long-term outcomes of reverse total shoulder arthroplasty in 2017, these classic JBJS articles reflect each era’s state-of-the-art and cutting-edge science.

Gain a better understanding of how JBJS has grown over the years to better serve the community of orthopaedic surgery subspecialists, with the introduction of new journals, rich media resources, and educational events and offerings that synthesize the field’s vast knowledge into easily accessible, digestible, interactive packages that you can use at the point of care.

An Unwavering Commitment to Excellence

While both orthopaedic surgery and academic publishing have changed dramatically over the decades, JBJS has always remained laser-focused on disseminating gold-standard, evidence-based, peer-reviewed research with strong clinical relevance. We’ve also maintained our position as a hub for trusted information and learning resources designed for general orthopaedic surgeons and subspecialists alike. Throughout our history, our primary mission has been to improve the ability of our profession to restore people to their optimum activity levels, quality of life, and overall physical and mental well-being.

We hope, as you study our history, that you recognize the significant contributions of everyone at JBJS, from our editors and staff to our contributors, reviewers, and subscribers. And we hope you see yourself as an important participant in our shared community – a community of specialized professionals who are dedicated to caring for the patients who need us.

Together, let us continue to work closely with each other. To learn and teach. To unite the art and the science, the surgeon and the patient, and the past and the future. Let us all continue to bring together the finest minds (and hands) in orthopaedics to continually advance the field. That is the JBJS commitment to you.