Live from the Pennsylvania Hospital Museum: 275 years of medicine

Pennsylvania Hospital was founded in 1751 – 15 years before the country itself. It was established on the principle that healthcare should be for everyone, not just those who could afford it.

Through this institution, radical thinkers like Dr. Thomas Bond, Benjamin Franklin, and Benjamin Rush upended conceptions of mental illness and revolutionized healthcare. The original building on Pine Street is home to the first apothecary, the first medical library, and the first surgical amphitheater. And after nearly 300 years, it’s still going strong.

So, how did this institution come to be? And what modern lessons can we learn from the hospital’s early idealism?

Guests:

— Stacey Peeples, curator and lead archivist of Pennsylvania Hospital, and the historian who spent 25 years building the archive behind the newly opened Pennsylvania Hospital Museum.

— Stephen Fried, award-winning journalist, lecturer at both Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, and author of acclaimed nonfiction books including “Rush: Revolution, Madness and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father.”