Pennsylvania Hospital Museum opens in Philly

Penn Medicine opened the Pennsylvania Hospital Museum to the public on May 8, adding a new public-facing history site at 800 Spruce Street in Center City Philadelphia. The museum sits inside Pennsylvania Hospital, which Penn Medicine describes as the nation’s first chartered hospital, founded in 1751. (pahmuseum.pennmedicine.org) The opening comes as Philadelphia adds other new attractions this spring, including the Ministry of Awe immersive art venue in Old City. Philly Magazine first reported the museum’s public debut on May 14. (penntoday.upenn.edu) ### Where is the new museum, and what exactly opened? The Pennsylvania Hospital Museum is located at 800 Spruce Street in Philadelphia, inside the hospital’s historic Pine Building, according to Penn Medicine’s museum site. (pahmuseum.pennmedicine.org) Penn Medicine says visitors can walk through exhibits tied to nearly 275 years of medical history at Pennsylvania Hospital. Museum hours listed online are Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Penn Today reported in February that the project was timed to the hospital’s 275th anniversary and to Philadelphia’s America250 planning. The university publication said the museum would connect the hospital’s early history with current Penn Medicine work in science and medicine. (pahmuseum.pennmedicine.org) ### What will visitors see inside the Pennsylvania Hospital Museum? Penn Today said the museum includes eight galleries, interactive video and hands-on activities. The publication said key spaces include the preserved historic library, the surgical amphitheater and a newly restored apothecary. (pahmuseum.pennmedicine.org) Stacey Peeples, lead archivist at Pennsylvania Hospital, said in the Penn Today report that the project is meant to show “the huge contributions of generations of caregivers, patients and staff.” Penn Today said the galleries highlight subjects including brain and mental health and women’s health, and noted that Pennsylvania Hospital is now the busiest birthing hospital in Philadelphia, with more than 5,000 babies delivered each year. (penntoday.upenn.edu) ### Why is Pennsylvania Hospital tied so closely to Philadelphia history? Penn Medicine says Pennsylvania Hospital was the first chartered hospital in the United States. (penntoday.upenn.edu) The museum site says the new public exhibits trace how the hospital’s “legacy of care and discovery” shaped medicine over nearly three centuries. Penn Today said the museum links events from the American Revolution and the 1793 yellow fever outbreak to more recent periods including the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same report, Peeples said the hospital’s history is tied not only to Philadelphia but to the history of the United States. (penntoday.upenn.edu) ### What other museum-style opening is happening nearby in Philadelphia? The Ministry of Awe is now open at 27 N. 3rd Street in Old City, according to its website. The venue describes itself as an “ever-evolving immersive art experience” inside a 19th-century bank building. (pahmuseum.pennmedicine.org) WHYY reported that artist Meg Saligman is converting the former Manufacturers National Bank into a six-story installation with murals, sculpture, virtual reality and performance art. WHYY said the building was designed in 1870 by a team that included architect Frank Furness, and that the project opened on March 14. (penntoday.upenn.edu) ### Was there also a “Night at the Museum” event in this roundup? The available source material does not support the National Museum of Natural History item in Philadelphia. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington said it opened a separate exhibition, “In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness,” on May 14, but that is a different museum and a different city. (moaphilly.org) The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, which is on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, lists free admission and regular hours Wednesday through Sunday. Its current May programming includes a Dual Heritage Month Celebration that took place on May 3, not a May 18 “Night at the Museum,” according to the museum’s event listings. (whyy.org) ### What happens next for the new hospital museum? Penn Medicine’s event calendar lists a Visit Philly “52 Weeks of Firsts” program at the Pennsylvania Hospital Museum on May 16 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Elm Garden. The museum site also lists regular paid visits and ticketing through its online portal for the new galleries at 800 Spruce Street. (americanhistory.si.edu) (pahmuseum.pennmedicine.org) (theweitzman.org)