The Opening of the Roper Hospital in Antebellum Charleston, South Carolina

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The Opening of the Roper Hospital in Antebellum Charleston, South Carolina

Hyejung Grace Kong





This study highlights the opening of the Roper Hospital in Antebellum Charleston, South Carolina, for what it reveals about the nature of the nineteenth hospital system, especially in relation to the medical profession and education. By primarily relying upon the Roper Hospital Board of Trustee Minutes and Charleston Medical Journal and Review, this study examines how the Roper Hospital was initiated, planned, and built in Charleston society. It also reveals that how health care was predominantly built upon the orthodox medical profession, and institutionalized within the hospital walls. Erected by the bequest of Charleston philanthropist Colonel Thomas Roper, the Roper Hospital opened its door to the local patients in 1856. The establishment of the Roper Hospital as a form of institutionalized medical care and an integral part of medical education well illuminates the transformation of medicine in the mid-nineteenth century. The Roper Hospital was initiated and operated exclusively by the medical profession with an aid of some public funding, but it functioned as a public institution. Along with the hospital’s arrangement with the medical school for the clinical lectures for the improvement of medical education, it was also evident that the erection of the Roper Hospital galvanized many Charleston practitioners. In addition, the Roper Hospital was considered the best and largest place for “desirable” clinical instruction in Charleston. The hospital wards, full of the sick poor, served as a medical laboratory as well as a place for curing the sick. Moreover, the Roper Hospital functioned as a meeting venue of the orthodox medical profession in South Carolina. The hospital reserved a large room on the second floor as a meeting place for not only the Trustees but also several medical meetings such as South Carolina Medical Association (SCMA) meetings. In sum, from the beginning of the hospital planning, the Roper Hospital was an embodiment of the aspiration of the Charleston medical circle.