Pennsylvania Hospital opens its new museum with old herbal remedies and digital cadavers

Inside the nation’s newest museum, an instrument for bloodletting sits feet away from an interactive digital cadaver.

Herbal medicine is described alongside CAR-T, the cancer immunotherapy developed at the University of Pennsylvania.

And displays on the origin of mental healthcare are paired with images of deep brain stimulation, a technique used to treat neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Exhibits juxtapose the past against the present in the medical history museum that opened on Friday within the nation’s oldest chartered hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital.

“It is an opportunity to reflect on how our past informs our present and inspires our future,” Alicia Gresham, CEO of Pennsylvania Hospital, said at a preview event Wednesday.

As Pennsylvania Hospital celebrates its 275th anniversary this year, the museum located in its historic Pine Building at Eighth and Pine Streets lets visitors learn about historic medical firsts and tour the recently restored surgical amphitheater, medical library, and apothecary.

The curated glimpse of American medical history traces back to 1751, when Benjamin Franklin and physician Thomas Bond first established the institution to treat the physically and mentally ill for free. Before then, sick Pennsylvanians had few options outside of often expensive home-based care.

“In many ways, this hospital established the uniquely American culture of civic-minded philanthropy, the idea that private generosity can build public good,” Jon Epstein, dean of Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, said at Wednesday’s preview event.

The museum spans eight galleries, which feature videos, hands-on activities, and archival objects describing the history of the hospital and the care it delivered. Topics they touch on include psychiatry and women’s health, and the hospital’s role in treating patients during times of conflict, from the Seven Years’ War through pandemics.

The opening coincides with America’s 250th anniversary celebrations, which will spotlight the hospital on May 16 as part of Philadelphia’s 52 Weeks of Firsts programming.

In the 1800s, hundreds would gather to watch surgeons at Pennsylvania Hospital operate.

The surgical amphitheater, the nation’s first, featured two floors of seats circling the operating table in the center. A skylight in the dome roof illuminated procedures. Sawdust would cover the floor to absorb spilled blood or fluids.

Amputations, hernia repairs, and removal of surface tumors and bladder stones were the most common surgeries at the time. Anesthesia wasn’t used until 1848. Instead, patients were offered rum, whiskey, or possibly laudanum, an opiate.

Now the restored surgical amphitheater gives visitors an opportunity to dissect virtual full-body cadavers, using a modern-day tool for education in the health professions.

The apothecary, where medicines were mixed and sold, most recently served as a conference room.

Restored for the museum based on historic images from the 19th century, it displays the actual scale used to weigh ingredients atop a counter for mixing medications.

Most treatments in 17th and 18th century America were based on substances found in nature. A topical ointment for wounds, called a salve, was made by mixing herbal extracts such as calendula. A plant called Lamb’s Ear doubled as a Band-Aid and toilet paper. Butterfly milkweed was used to treat respiratory conditions.

Other medications are still available today, including Phillip’s Milk of Magnesia for constipation and Ex-Lax, a chocolate laxative.

Visitors can open drawers to find information about these treatments and more.

For the month of May, tickets will be sold at a reduced price of $10. Afterward, they will cost $12 per person, with discounts for those 12 and under, 65 and over, and the military.

The museum is planned as a permanent fixture, open Wednesdays to Sundays, while Pennsylvania Hospital will continue operating as normal.