History
Rush Medical College was chartered in on March 2, 1837, two days before the city of Chicago was chartered. The college opened with 22 students on December 4, 1843. It was the first health care institution in Chicago and one of the few medical schools west of the Alleghenies. Its founder, Dr. Daniel Brainard, named the school in honor of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the only physician with medical school training to sign the Declaration of Independence and who would later teach Meriwether Lewis the basics medical skills for his expedition with William Clark to the Pacific Northwest. The general hospital associated with the medical college would be the first in Chicago.
The early Rush faculty, well known across the American frontier for its expertise, engaged in patient care, research and teaching, and was associated with a number of scientific developments and new clinical procedures. As the city grew, so did Rush’s involvement with other developing institutions: St. Luke’s Hospital, established in 1864; Presbyterian Hospital, which was begun at the urging of the Rush faculty in 1883; and the University of Chicago, with which Rush Medical College was affiliated and later united from 1898 to 1942.
In the early 1940s, Rush discontinued undergraduate education, but its library was maintained and its faculty continued to teach at the University of Illinois School of Medicine. In 1969, Rush Medical College reactivated its charter and merged with Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital, which itself had been formed through merger in 1956, to form Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center. Rush University, which now includes colleges of medicine, nursing, health sciences and research training, was established in 1972. The Medical Center officially changed its name in September 2003 to Rush University Medical Center, to reflect the important role education and research play in its patient care mission.
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