The hospital has opened a museum reflecting on its history as a pioneer in surgery, education and innovation.
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PHILADELPHIA — The cornerstone was laid in 1755 and read: “George II reigns happily (because he sought the happiness of his people).”
Now older than the country itself and part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the hospital has opened a museum that celebrates its history as a pioneer in surgery, education and innovation.
Pennsylvania Hospital was founded in 1751 by Dr. Thomas Bond and his friend Benjamin Franklin. As a practicing physician, Bond has seen many of the city’s poor people forced to forgo medical care because they cannot afford it. He consulted friends and fellow doctors, and while they generally agreed there was a need, they balked when Bond asked for money to start a hospital to serve those in need. Stacey Peoples, the hospital’s curator and archivist, said:
The hospital claims it is the oldest in the country, but other hospitals claim similar titles. “Pennsylvania Hospital has always been just a hospital, and it has always functioned as a medical facility,” Peoples said.
“He’s seen them in Europe,” Peoples said. “And he wanted to bring it to America.”
What is Bond’s solution? Let’s go to Franklin, the most respected and most influential thinker in Philadelphia at the time, a man who could make things happen.
Help the poor and protect their name
Although not religiously affiliated, Pennsylvania Hospital was founded in a city heavily influenced by its Quaker roots. Its mission is to provide free medical care to the poor, white and black, free and slave.
“But if an enslaved person received medical treatment, their master was responsible for paying for that treatment,” Peoples explained.
Many of the city’s poor were illiterate and had no property. Therefore, their treatment records at Pennsylvania Hospital “may be the only records that exist,” Peoples said.
“Putting it out into the world is what I enjoy the most,” said Peoples, who has a master’s degree in history and has worked at the National Archives.
She showed handwritten payment records from contractors who worked at the hospital. Among them was Richard Allen, a former slave man who bought his freedom, co-founded the Free African Society, and founded Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Surgery, pharmacology, meteorology, mental health care
There is one surprising discovery in the museum’s collection. It is a collection of weather data stored in the hospital pharmacy three times a day from 1824 to 1922. Peoples said the National Weather Service has also looked at the data from time to time.
Pennsylvania Hospital adopted a scientific approach inspired by the Enlightenment, rejected the then-common idea that mental illness was caused by demonic possession or other supernatural phenomena, and served not only those with mental illness but also the poor.
Peoples said doctors there “knew there was something medically wrong” causing the unusual behavior, even if they didn’t know exactly what it was. Benjamin Rush, politician, physician, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was an early pioneer in the treatment of the mentally ill, advocating, for example, heating cells for the mentally ill, even though others believed they were too sick to feel the effects of the environment.
The hospital’s medical library is also part of the museum tour and contains more than 13,000 books dating back to 1483 from doctors and medical facilities around the world (still available to researchers upon request).
The first operating room in the United States also opened and is one of the hospital’s signature architectural features. When the hospital opened in 1804, surgeons didn’t know anything about anesthesia or germs; rear They understood the value of teaching the next generation of doctors, and as many as 300 of them were able to observe operations in round rooms from two or three floors up.
The operating room now has a life-sized, virtual, interactive operating table that allows visitors to see the human body from the inside, “peel away” layers of skin, muscles, blood vessels and nerves down to the skeleton, and even “cross-section” through organs such as the brain.
But one of Peoples’ favorite rooms in the hospital museum is dedicated to “Patience.” It is filled with photos and stories of medical professionals who have traveled to conflict zones and worked in the midst of epidemics throughout Pennsylvania Hospital’s history, from yellow fever to influenza to HIV/AIDS to COVID-19.
“I’ve always been interested in infectious diseases and how people react to them,” she said. “You know, savers versus hoarders, we’ve seen situations like this throughout history.”
Phaedra Torresan is a national correspondent for USA TODAY and writes about history and Americana. Email us at ptrethan@usatoday.com, X @wordsbyphaedra, BlueSky @byphaedra, or Threads @by_phaedra..
