Cooper University Hospital

To celebrate its first 130 years, Cooper University Hospital—a long‑time community pillar in Camden, New Jersey—is proud to present the institution’s remarkable history.

This history traces the Cooper story from 1887 to 2017, incorporating historical research, personal interviews, medical milestones, and hospital records to describe the dramatic transformation from its humble beginnings as a thirty‑bed hospital into today’s world‑class academic medical center and regional health care leader. The story documents how Cooper began as the dream of a prominent Camden family and traces its growth and expansion through times of prosperity as well as challenges. Each chapter captures the essence of Cooper through its dedicated physicians, nurses, administrators, Board members, and health care staff who guided Cooper’s growth along the way. It is these compassionate, community‑minded and visionary men and women who ultimately created a thirty‑block Health Sciences Campus committed to outstanding patient care, medical education, and academic research that’s still anchored in the neighborhood where it began.

Throughout its rich history, Cooper has remained true to its mission—to serve, to heal, to educate—and has grown to meet the medical challenges of a geographically dispersed patient population and ever‑changing health care environment. This foundation has positioned Cooper to continue serving Camden and the region for the next 130 years and beyond.

Due to the size of this book we are only displaying the first and last chapters.