Pennsylvania Hospital, the country’s oldest hospital, has been transformed into a new museum, writes Nicole Leonard for WHYY.
The museum’s opening on Friday, May 8, marked the hospital’s 275th anniversary, .
For Stacey Peeples, the lead archivist and curator at Penn Hospital over the past 25 years, this has been among her biggest projects.
“I hope people come and they enjoy it. I hope that they have that same appreciation for the hospital and what it is that we have done here in this community for 275 years,” Peeples said of the new museum. “You look around and most places don’t last that long, and to be doing the same exact thing that we were chartered to do all those years ago, that’s pretty special.”
Founded by Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin in 1751, the original hospital at the Pine Building aimed to be a place of relief.
Doctors and nurses treated patients on site there until 1971, before transitioning to a larger, more modern building that is now Pennsylvania Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Pine Building was used for administrative offices and archives for Penn Medicine.
The new museum will allow visitors to experience the hospital’s history, the evolution of care at the site, and medical innovations there over the last 275 years.
Read more about what to expect from Philly’s newest museum at WHYY.
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