Timeline 1753-1799

1757
Benjamin Franklin institutes the first municipal street cleaning service in the United States

1762
The first medical library in the nation, the Medical Library at Pennsylvania Hospital, opens.

1765
John Morgan helps to found the first medical school in the nation, the Medical College of Philadelphia, later the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

1783-1813
Dr. Benjamin Rush, who became known as the "father of American psychiatry," serves as a doctor at Pennsylvania Hospital.

1784
In response to the danger of disease in the city, Philadelphia fills in the swampland bordering Dock Creek near Spruce Street.

1793
Yellow fever epidemic in the City of Philadelphia kills one-tenth of the city's population, about 5,000 people. The following year, in response to epidemic, the city establishes one of the first health offices in the nation.

1794-1816
Dr. Philip Syng Physick, later known as the "father of American surgery," serves on the staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital.

Late 1700s
Benjamin Rush reforms psychiatric care at the Pennsylvania Hospital. Patients are no longer chained in cells. Townspeople are no longer allowed to watch the mental patients as a form of entertainment.

1799
In an effort to control disease brought by immigrants, the city establishes a quarantine hospital for the Port of Philadelphia called the Lazaretto.