Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital’s legacy traces back to nine young women from prominent, wealthy families in Cleveland, who gathered together on Thanksgiving Day in 1887 to discuss how they could help the children of the city’s poor. These women called themselves the “Rainbow Circle of King’s Daughters.”
For the first three years, these women worked by aiding “worthy” destitute families, furnishing them with food and clothing, and helping them to pay rent and find employment. In 1891, they raised enough money to fulfill their dream and opened Rainbow Cottage, a healthy place for children to recover from illness. Rainbow Cottage changed its name to Rainbow Hospital for Crippled and Convalescent Children in 1914.
Babies Dispensary & Hospital opened in 1907. Babies & Children’s (B&C) Hospital opened in 1925 and was the academic arm of the pediatrics program at Western Reserve University School of Medicine (now Case Western Reserve University). Both Rainbow and B&C were affiliated with University Hospitals by the late 1920’s.
Since opening in 1887, Rainbow is credited for many firsts in the field of pediatrics including, developing the first baby formulas, opening the first cystic fibrosis center in the country and opening among the first neonatal intensive care units to treat premature infants.