Category: Famous Hospitals
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The history of Bethlem Hospital
Janice TiaoPennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States Perhaps no hospital has made its mark on human imagination as much as Bethlem Hospital, located outside London. The first hospital in England to specialize in the care of the insane, Bethlem gave birth to the caricature of the lunatic asylum as a place filled with chained patients in filthy…
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The General Hospital—All are welcome
Jan KardaunAmsterdam, Netherlands Most people associate a hospital with medical care but would like to stay there as briefly as possible. In 1656, King Louis XIV of France created a General Hospital for all who needed care. It was spacious, elegantly designed, situated at the outskirts of the city of Paris, and free. But there…
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Pennsylvania Hospital
Hannah JoynerTakoma Park, Maryland, United States The Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia opened its doors more than two decades before the American colonies separated from Britain. Originally designed to care for all patients regardless of their circumstances, the hospital admitted those who could pay and those who could not. From the first days of the institution,…
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Broadmoor: 150 years in the life of a secure psychiatric hospital
Gwen AdsheadUnited Kingdom If you type “Broadmoor” into a common search engine, two residential centers will be recommended to you. One is a luxurious spa in Colorado, with cheerful and enthusiastic testimonials (“I shall certainly stay at the Broadmoor again!”). The other is a maximum security psychiatric hospital, the subject of the picture above and…
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The Craiglockhart War Hospital of Edinburgh
Georgina WeatherdonSHO NHS Lothian hospitals Was it the ghost of autumn in that smellOf underground, or God’s blank heart grown kind,That sent a happy dream to him in hell?—Where men are crushed like clods, and crawl to findSome crater for their wretchedness; who lieIn outcast immolation, doomed to dieFar from clean things or any hope…
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The Old Cook County Hospital of Chicago
George Dunea This venerable hospital still exists, but in some ways it exists no more, because in 2002 it was renamed, rebuilt, and drastically reduced in size. But some half a century ago it was one the largest hospitals in the world. It had a bed capacity of 4,500, almost 100,000 admissions each year, and…
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Byzantium: Origin of the modern hospital
According to most historians, the modern hospital as we know it today traces its origins to the eastern part of the Roman Empire, the part that after the final partition of the Empire by Theodosius the Great (AD 395) became the Byzantine Empire. Research into the history of the hospitals has been difficult, because only…
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Chonbuk National University Hospital
Esther MgbemejeJeonju, South Korea Located in the capital of North Jeolla province,1 Chonbuk National University Hospital was built in 1909 by the South Korean government. It was established during the last days of the Joseon dynasty, and was the second medical clinic built in the Jeolla province when little medical aid was available for its…
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Maynard-Columbus Hospital
Erin K. CrouchFairbanks, Alaska, United States Finding gold in 1898 transformed a stretch of tundra just four degrees south of the Arctic Circle into a cabin city of tents, logs, and 20,000 prospectors, including claim jumpers, men of fortune, saloon keepers, and women of ill repute. That marshy patch became Nome, the largest town in…