University of Pennsylvania
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University of Pennsylvania Archives
Amey A. Hutchins, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, is now a staff member at the university. After earning her master's degree and working at Penn's Rare Book and Manuscript Library, she joined the staff of the University of Pennsylvania Archives. As public services archivist, she answers reference questions and assists researchers.
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University of Pennsylvania - University of Pennsylvania Archives
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INTRODUCTION
The early history of the University of Pennsylvania is marked on one hand by the guiding inspiration and practical assistance of Benjamin Franklin and on the other by a succession of predecessor institutions and changes in leadership. In 1755, the College, Academy, and Charitable School of Philadelphia received a charter from the colony and assumed the power to grant undergraduate degrees. It was first called the University of Pennsylvania in 1791, when, after surviving the American Revolution and subsequent state takeover, the university reclaimed its identity as a private institution (as it has been ever since). Its identity as the first university in the United States dates to 1765, when it established the first medical school in the colonies.
With the new century, the university shifted to a new campus. In 1800, Penn purchased a mansion that had been built to be the residence of the president of the United States. The President’s House
was the university’s home for nearly 30 years. In 1829, the Departments of Arts and Medicine moved into twin buildings built where the President’s House had stood. In 1850, Penn created the University of Pennsylvania Law School, which was followed by the School of Engineering two years later. In 1872, the university moved again to open land west of the Schuylkill River, which remains its home today. At first, all university departments and functions were housed in College Hall, but Penn began to grow rapidly. Before the end of the century, the Towne Scientific School, the School of Dental Medicine, the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Veterinary Medicine had all been established.
During this time of change and expansion, the university’s definition of its student body was also expanding. In the late 1870s, a few exceptional women began to attend classes leading to certificates of proficiency and graduate degrees. In the 1880s, pioneering African American men began earning degrees in first professional and then undergraduate programs. As the 19th century ended, the university’s relationship to all its students was changing with the development of athletic programs, the opening of the first student union in America, and the construction of dormitories.
In the 20th century, Penn continued to adapt itself to changing academic, professional, and social contexts. The School of Education, the School of Social Work, the School of Design, the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, the College of Liberal Arts for Women, the School of Nursing, and the Annenberg School of Communications were in place by 1959. Fifteen years later, the College, the College for Women, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences were combined under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, at which point undergraduate programs at Penn became fully coeducational. In 1993, the university elected Judith Seitz Rodin, an alumna of Penn’s College for Women, to its presidency. With her election, Penn became the first Ivy League institution to have a woman as president and signaled its intention to continue breaking new ground as the 21st century approached.
One
BRICKS AND MORTAR DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAMPUS
It is propos’d . . . That a House be provided for the Academy, if not in the Town, not many miles from it; the Situation high and dry, and if it may be, not far from a River, having a Garden, Orchard, Meadow, and a Field or two.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1749
This photograph shows College Hall sometime between 1939, when the statue of Benjamin Franklin was moved to campus and dedicated, and 1958, when Woodland Avenue was closed. The statue, which previously stood at the corner of Ninth and Chestnut Streets, has become one of the most famous Penn landmarks.
Penn’s first campus was in the Old City neighborhood of today’s Philadelphia, at Fourth and Arch Streets. This 1913 watercolor by Charles Lefferts was based on an 18th-century drawing by Pierre Eugène Du Simitière. It shows the Academy of Philadelphia on the left, which was purchased and converted for school use in 1750. The building on the right is a dormitory that was built in 1762.
In 1829, cornerstones were laid for new buildings to house the College (arts and sciences) and the Medical Department on the university’s land on Ninth Street, between Market and Chestnut. The buildings were designed by William Strickland, who also designed the Second Bank of the United States in Philadelphia. The new buildings, shown here in an image from 1830, were Penn’s home until the move to West Philadelphia in 1872.
College Hall, the first building of the new campus in West Philadelphia, was completed in 1872. The architect, Thomas Richards, was first an instructor and then, for 17 years, a professor of architecture. College Hall held all of Penn’s classrooms and its library. This c. 1874 photograph shows how the university found abundant space by crossing the Schuylkill River. Even so, from the end of the Civil War onward, West Philadelphia became increasingly connected to central Philadelphia through developments such as new bridges across the Schuylkill and horse-car lines. This photograph also shows one of the towers that originally marked the two ends of College Hall. This tower, at the west end of the building, was dismantled in 1914; its partner at the east end of the building was taken down in 1929.
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, located across Spruce Street from the future site of Houston Hall, opened in 1874. It was one of the earliest university-affiliated