Historedia
Person

Benjamin Rush

Events
2
Episodes
9
Years
1782–1795

Every event in Historedia whose sources name Benjamin Rush, with the role they cite and all of that event’s episodes. This is not a biography, and mentions are grouped by name, so two people with the same name can share this page.

Events and episodes

  1. Chartering of Dickinson College

    1782–1784

    Role: Founder; signer of the Declaration of Independence who led the effort to charter the college

    1. 1782 · Philadelphia meeting about a Carlisle collegePlanning a frontier college

      In 1782 Benjamin Rush met John Montgomery and William Bingham in Philadelphia to discuss founding a college in Carlisle.

    2. 1783 · Dickinson CollegeNaming for the Dickinsons and the library gift

      Rush proposed naming the college for John and Mary Norris Dickinson, whose donated joint library was among the largest in the colonies.

    3. September 9, 1783 · Carlisle, PennsylvaniaCharter granted by the Pennsylvania legislature

      On September 9, 1783, the Pennsylvania legislature chartered Dickinson College, the first college founded in the newly independent United States.

    4. April 1784 · Carlisle, PennsylvaniaFirst meeting of the trustees

      Benjamin Rush made his first journey to Carlisle in April 1784 to attend the college trustees' first meeting.

  2. Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic

    1793–1795

    Role: Physician who recognized the fever's pattern and treated patients

    1. 1793 · PhiladelphiaRush identifies the fever and applies therapies

      Benjamin Rush recognized the yellow fever pattern after two weeks of rising cases and treated patients with bleeding and purging, teaching African-American nurses these methods.

    2. August 1793 · Port of PhiladelphiaRefugee arrivals and the onset of epidemic

      French colonial refugees from Saint-Domingue crowded Philadelphia's port, where the city's first yellow fever epidemic in thirty years began in early August 1793.

    3. August 1 – November 9, 1793 · PhiladelphiaMortality and the official death register

      An official register listed more than 5,000 deaths among Philadelphia's 50,000 citizens between August 1 and November 9, 1793, a total probably understated.

    4. September 14, 1793 · PhiladelphiaCivic relief efforts and the Mayor's Committee

      A citizens' committee appointed on September 14, 1793 relieved the sick and distressed; Mathew Carey contrasted volunteers' sacrifices with others' selfishness.

    5. 1795–1881 (aftermath developments) · PhiladelphiaAftermath: quarantine, philanthropy, and debate

      The epidemic prompted Philadelphia's Lazaretto quarantine hospital in 1799, Anne Parrish's 1795 relief society, and later medical debates over contagion and mosquito transmission.

Sources

  1. Dickinson College Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-21
  2. 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24