In 1787, Caspar Wistar, M.D., began his medical practice in Philadelphia. Dr. Wistar was the author of the first American textbook on anatomy, and succeeded friend Thomas Jefferson as president of the American Philosophical Society.

In 1808 Caspar Wistar became chair of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. To augment his medical lectures and help illustrate comparative anatomy, Wistar began a collection of dried, wax-injected, and preserved human specimens.

The Wistar Institute Museum Collection archives house the only existing examples of Rush’s anatomical models.