Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813
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Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813
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Surname :
Rush
Forename :
Benjamin
Date :
1746-1813
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rda
Pennsylvanian, 1746-1813
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Name Components
Forename :
Pennsylvanian
Date :
1746-1813
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Male
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Biographical History
Benjamin Rush (January 4, 1746 [O.S. December 24, 1745] – April 19, 1813) was a Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, and educator and the founder of Dickinson College. Rush attended the Continental Congress. His later self-description there was: "He aimed right." He served as Surgeon General of the Continental Army and became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
Born in the Township of Byberry in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania (now part of Philadelphia), Rush was educated at a school run by Reverend Samuel Finley, which later became West Nottingham Academy. In 1760, after further studies at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), Rush graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree at age fourteen. From 1761 to 1766, Rush apprenticed under Dr. John Redman in Philadelphia. Redman encouraged him to further his studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where Rush studied from 1766 to 1768 and earned an M. D. degree. Returning to the Colonies in 1769, Rush opened a medical practice in Philadelphia and became Professor of Chemistry at the College of Philadelphia. After his election to the revived American Philosophical Society in 1768, Rush served as the Society's Curator from 1770 to 1773, as Secretary from 1773 to 1773, and finally Vice President of the Society from 1797 to 1801. Rush ultimately published the first American textbook on chemistry and several volumes on medical student education, and wrote influential patriotic essays.
In June of 1776, Rush was elected to attend the provincial conference to send delegates to the Continental Congress. He was appointed to represent Philadelphia that year and so signed the Declaration of Independence. While Rush was representing Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress (and serving on its Medical Committee), he also used his medical skills in the field. In 1783, he was appointed to the staff of Pennsylvania Hospital, and he remained a member until his death. He was elected to the Pennsylvania convention which adopted the Federal constitution and was appointed treasurer of the United States Mint, serving from 1797 to 1813. He became a professor of medical theory and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania in 1791. Rush became a social activist and an abolitionist and was the most well-known physician in America at the time of his death.
After dying of typhus fever, he was buried along with his wife Julia in the Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia, not far from where Benjamin Franklin is buried.
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External Related CPF
https://viaf.org/viaf/84813377
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n50000649
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n50000649
https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q656478
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