Rush History Videos and Related Content
*SEE BELOW for links to VIDEOS related to Rush History.*
Learn more about the Time Capsules salvaged from the cornerstones of historic Rush buildings that were demolished in 2016:
"Time Capsules Reveal Rush, City History" from Rush News
Learn more about the Historic Salvage Project for the demolished Superblock buildings:
"Holding on to Pieces of Rush's Past" from the Rush InPerson blog
Janice Nimura's award-winning book, The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine, delves into the lives of Elizabeth Blackwell and Emily Blackwell (who briefly attended Rush Medical College, 1852-1853), the first women to receive medical degrees in the United States.
In this event, Nathalie Wheaton, Rush University Medical Center Archives, introduces Emily Blackwell's time at Rush Medical College, her relationship to founder and president, Daniel Brainard, MD, and further historical context for Chicago's first medical school.
This event was hosted by Rush’s Women’s Leadership Council, in partnership with Rush’s American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA), and the Rush Archives. [Presented February 2, 2022.]
For more on Janice Nimura and The Doctors Blackwell: janicenimura.com
Hosted by Rush Alumni Relations: A virtual event featuring Rush University Medical Center archivist, Nathalie Wheaton, MSLS, and a student representative for Rush's Racial Justice Action Committee and current third-year in the medical college, Niyi Soetan. We will start by exploring Rush's past and how Rush Medical College awarded David Jones Peck, MD, a doctor of medicine degree in 1847, making him the first Black person to receive this distinction from an American medical school. While learning more about Dr. Peck and his history at Rush, Niyi will help connect the past to the present with his personal experiences in medical school as a Black man and how that dovetails with current diversity and anti-racism efforts at Rush. [Presented September 30, 2020.] [LINK]
- Rush Archives Presentation for Rush Heritage Society, May 27, 2020
I was invited by Rush's Office of Philanthropy to host an online presentation for the Rush Heritage Society and other guests. I presented a brief history of Rush's 180-plus years using some of my favorite photographs from the Rush Archives collections. I also enjoyed participating in an interesting question-and-answer session with our eighty live viewers. The city of Chicago and Rush Medical College, both chartered in 1837, experienced countless, and almost constant, waves of epidemics in the mid-19th century. And, of course, no city or hospital was left untouched by the 1918 influenza pandemic. Learn more about these stories in our presentation. - Two Rush Doctors: Military and Family Practice Careers of the Drs. Williams (2012) [RT: 55:00]This presentation provides a glimpse into Rush’s early history and includes historic photos, letters, patient ledgers, and diary entries illustrating the lives and careers of two early Rush Medical College graduates. In 1863, John L. Williams, MD, graduated from Rush Medical College. The following year, he volunteered to serve as a surgeon for the Union Army in Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the Civil War. Upon the completion of his service, he returned to his thriving practice in Cambria, Wisconsin. In 1889, his son, William, graduated from Rush and continued his father’s practice and served as a small town physician for nearly fifty years.
[Delivered March 28, 2012, at Rush University by Archivist, Heather J. Stecklein, and Robert L. Behling, the great-great-grandson of John L. Williams, MD.]
- Lady Doctors: Women Physicians at Rush, 1900-1920 (2017) [RT 42:52]Nathalie Wheaton, Rush archivist, presents stories of our early female medical students and practitioners within the larger contexts of the Progressive Era, the Flexner Report, the growing metropolis of Chicago, and the city’s oldest medical school, Rush Medical College. [Delivered at Rush University, October 24, 2017.] Event sponsored by the Rush University student groups of the American Medical Women’s Association and the Association of Women Surgeons.
- Rush Opens Time Capsules (2016) [RT 4:52]Four historic buildings on the Rush University Medical Center campus, Chicago, were demolished in 2016. Learn more about the time capsules found in their cornerstones with Nathalie Wheaton, Rush Archivist. In the summer of 2016, specialized work crews helped remove the time capsules from the cornerstones of the buildings undergoing demolition, as well as ensuring that all architecturally significant elements of the buildings were preserved. Conservators then carefully opened the capsules, yielding long bygone newspapers, photographs, rulebooks, building plans and more.
- Rush in the Past (2016) [RT 7:46]Rush’s long history is intertwined with the histories of the City of Chicago and of medicine itself. This video, featuring Rush Archivist Nathalie Wheaton, recounts that history, from the Great Chicago Fire; to the discovery that germs spread disease, the founding of Rush’s hospital and nursing college, and the advent of the X-ray; and up to today. This video was produced for the Rush Time Capsule Celebration.
- Rush Time Capsule Celebration (2016) [RT 55:42]Rush University Medical Center held an event in October 2016, to celebrate the opening of time capsules salvaged from the demolition of the oldest buildings on campus. The event was streamed live on Rush's Facebook page, yielding this video.
This video features remarks from Larry Goodman, MD, CEO of RUMC and President, Rush University; Thomas A. Deutsch, MD, Provost, Rush University; and Nathalie Wheaton, MSLS, Rush Archivist. Also featured are musical performances by RU Harmony, a Rush University student group, singing two songs from the Rush Medical College yearbook of 1894.
- Rush Through the Years (2016) [RT 45:52]Rush Archivist Nathalie Wheaton gives a presentation about the history of Rush University and its predecessor schools. This presentation was given Sept. 26, 2016, as part of Welcome Week activities for Rush University students.
