Rush Archives Blog

From the Rush Archives: Rush Medical College Alumnus Chooses Ice Cream, 1918

July is National Ice Cream Month! Yes, it's our second National Ice Cream Month post this month, but there is a surprising amount of ice cream content throughout Rush's history.

-Post contributed by Rush Archives Work Study Student Kirsten Petrarca, Doctoral Student in Audiology, Rush University.

Despite its popularity, ice cream is not an evidence-based treatment for any of our modern ills. However, Will Clay (Rush Medical College, class of 1880) quit the practice of medicine in 1918 to run a large ice cream parlor in Albert Lea, Minnesota. 

Here, his alumni update to the January 1918 issue of the Bulletin of the Alumni Association of Rush Medical College*, concluded with, "I hope to be able to pay more attention to Rush than I have in the past as I think a good deal of old Rush and the teaching that I was under during my career attending medical lectures in Chicago."

Want to see what Rush Medical College was like when Dr. Clay graduated? Explore the 1880 Annual Announcement (school catalog) of Rush Medical College** here: https://archive.org/details/annualannounceme38unse/mode/2up

To learn more about the history of Rush or the Rush Archives collections, please visit our website or contact the archivist, Nathalie Wheaton, MSLS.

*From the Bulletin collection, Alumni Association of Rush Medical College Records, #4767, Rush University Medical Center Archives, Chicago, Ill. https://archive.org/details/bulletinofalumni13rush/page/12/mode/2up

**From the Rush Medical College Records, #4707, Rush University Medical Center Archives, Chicago, Ill.