Rush Archives Blog

From the Rush Archives: Happy Birthday to Rush and Chicago!

Happy 188th birthday, Rush! The oldest component of the Rush University System for Health, Rush Medical College, was established March 2, 1837, two days before Chicago was chartered as a city.

By Nathalie Wheaton, MSLS, archivist

The story of Chicago medical history usually begins with Daniel Brainard, MD (1812-1866). A recent medical school graduate, Brainard traveled to Chicago from his home state of Pennsylvania in 1836 to look for opportunities on what was then the frontier of white settlement in the United States.

Many potential physicians in these new Midwestern towns could not travel to the east coast for extensive periods of time to attend medical school. To fulfill this need, Brainard founded Rush Medical College at a time when the population of Chicago was fewer than 4000 residents. Rush was the first medical school in Chicago and one of the first established in the Midwest. He was only 25-years-old at the time.

Brainard named the school for Benjamin Rush, MD, (1745-1813) famed Pennsylvanian physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Along with serving as president of Rush Medical College until his death at only 53-years-old, Brainard served as Chicago's first health officer, ran the surgical ward of Chicago's oldest hospital, Mercy Hospital (now Insight Hospital), and even ran for mayor of Chicago in 1858, coming in second at 46% of the vote.

CAPTION: Marble bust of Daniel Brainard, MD, by famed Chicago sculptor, Leonard Wells Volk, 1869, gifted to Rush Medical College in 1876. 

Want to learn more about the history of Rush or the Rush Archives collections? Explore the Rush Archives website, or contact the archivist, Nathalie Wheaton, MSLS.

"Unveiling the Bust of the Late Daniel Brainard," from the 1876-1877 Annual Announcement of Rush Medical College: 

archive.org/details/annualannouncem187677unse/page/n9/mode/2up