Rockford Health System recently unveiled Care for a Century,   In honor of the health care organization’s 125th anniversary, this photographic journey features the work of nationally-known photographer Nels Akerlund and includes 105 large-scale portraits of residents touched by our care in this community. The collection will be on display throughout 2008.

This unique collection represents people of every age from 16 hours old to 102 years and creates a visual timeline of who we are, how we age and what we will become. Each individual photographed has a connection to Rockford Health System. They are patients, employees, physicians, volunteers and donors from throughout the Rock River Valley. 

Among those photographed are guitarist Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick and Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey. Interestingly, there are people from 10 different countries besides the United States in the collection.   Their experiences are just as diverse. Some can remember Rockford Health System’s first hospital in a house on Church Street, some rode horses to school, one man was at Pearl Harbor and another child weighed 1 pound, 12 ounces at birth and spent time in Rockford Memorial Hospital’s Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  

Rockford Health System is celebrating 125 years of caring in this community. The Rockford Hospital Association was incorporated in 1883, becoming Rockford’s first hospital. This is just one of numerous activities planned this year to commemorate the anniversary.