The study of public health in Louisiana began in the early 1800s, when New Orleans suffered from endemic malaria and almost yearly epidemics of cholera and yellow fever. Attempts to control tropical diseases led to the establishment of the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834, founded by a group of young practicing physicians. The founders issued a prospectus that emphasized the lack of knowledge of these diseases and the necessity to study them in the environment in which they occurred. In 1881, formal instruction in hygiene was offered for the first time.

The medical college became a department of the public University of Louisiana in 1847 when a law department was added. Less than twenty years later, the university was incorporated as a private institution, named in honor of benefactor Paul Tulane, who donated more than $1 million to endow the university.

Another gift to Tulane, this time $25,000 from businessman Samuel Zemurray, instituted the country's first School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1912, laying the groundwork for today's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Although the school later merged with the College of Medicine in 1919, the school's launch in 1912 was significant, and joined the movement to establish similar institutions

around the world. It was hailed by academicians nationally and internationally as the first such school in the United States, where tropical diseases had had devastating effects, particularly in the South.

In 1947, the departments of tropical medicine and preventive medicine merged to establish the department of tropical medicine and public health within the medical school. Instruction at the graduate level expanded to a full academic year, with programs leading to the degrees of master of public health and master of public health and tropical medicine.

A doctoral program was approved in 1950, and the first doctorates in public health were awarded in 1953.

With public health and tropical medicine rapidly expanding, an administrative division of graduate public health was created in 1958, later re-designated as the Division of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1961. Programs leading to the degrees of master of science and doctor of science in hygiene were added, providing preparation for a wide range of public health careers.

In 1967, the Division of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine officially became the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. The school is now organized into seven departments: biostatistics, community health sciences, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, health systems management, international health and development, and tropical medicine. Students enroll from more than 40 different countries, and the school remains in the top tier of accredited schools of public health across the country.