HISTORICAL NOTES

Yesterday being the Day appointed for opening the Academy in this City; the Trustees met, and waited on his Honour our GOVERNOR, to the publick Hall of the Building, where the Rev. Mr. Peters made an excellent Sermon on the Occasion, to a crowded Audience. The Room of the Academy not being yet completely fitted for the Reception of the Scholars, the several Schools will be opened Tomorrow, in a large House of Mr. Allen, in Second street; Those who incline to enter their Children or Youth, may apply to the Rector or any one of the Trustees. The Pennsylvania Gazette, 8 January 1751

After more than a year of latter, the rudiments of reading, writing, preparation, and penmanship. When these and the first Board of Trustees introductory subjects had been completed, rejoiced on the day the Academy of most students expected to step up to the enrolled its first students. English School, where the master taught The Founders had done their work well. "the English tongue grammatically and as a Their appeals to the City Council of Language," as well as "History, Geography, Philadelphia and the Penn family Chronology, Logic, and Oratory." The proprietors of Pennsylvania had typical student completed his work in two achieved both financial and political or at most three years in each school. By support. They had recruited a faculty of the age of fourteen, even the well-educated four, three of whom were experienced young man was expected to enter the work and well-respected masters. By June of place. The aim of the English School, in 1751 they had nearly 100 tuition- Franklin's words, was to qualify its graduates paying students. Franklin was delighted. "Our Academy flourishes for learning any Business, Calling or beyond expectation," he wrote in Profession, except such wherein September. "We have excellent Masters Languages are required; ... they will at present; and as we give pretty good be Masters of their own, which of more salaries, I hope we shall always be able immediate and general Use; and to procure such." withal will have attain'd many other valuable Accomplishments; the Time

In that inaugural year the average age of ... being here employ'd in laying such the students was just nine. Those who a Foundation of Knowledge and were younger began their schooling in Ability, as, properly improv'd, may the classrooms of the Mathematical qualify them to pass thro' and execute master and the Writing master. In the the several Offices of civil Life, with Advantage and Reputation to Title page of Idea of the English School by Benjamin first they learned "Arithmetick, Franklin, 1751. Collections of the Walter and Leonore Merchants Accounts, Algebra, themselves and Country. Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Van Pelt- Astronomy, and Navigation" and in the Benjamin Franklin, Idea of the Dietrich Library Center, University of Pennsylvania. English School, September 1751 Franklin's bold proposal for higher education in America — that a fully articulated liberal arts education could be acquired in English alone — parted ways with centuries of European practice. It also held little appeal for Franklin's fellow Trustees. Many of them intended to send their sons to England for collegiate or professional education. They hoped the Academy of Philadelphia, like prep schools throughout the British-speaking world, would serve to prepare its students for successful application to an English university. No other purpose justified the investment in an education beyond the age when most young people were expected to enter the work place.

Accordingly, the Trustees insisted that the Academy of Philadelphia be modeled on the traditional British grammar school. For more than 200 years, the purpose of the grammar school had been William Birch view of the "President's House," west side of Ninth Street between Market and the preparation of its students for Chestnut. Built for President John Adams but never occupied, the President's House was purchased admission to the university or training in by the University of Pennsylvania in 1801. Penn remained on the Ninth Street campus until its move the professions. The chief academic to West Philadelphia in 1872. Drawn and engraved by William Birch and Sons. Collections of the administrator, or "Rector," was also University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center master of the "Latin and Greek School" at the Academy. As the senior member of the faculty, the Rector would be expected The Academy Becomes a College seven liberal arts of collegiate education. to teach Latin, Greek and "higher In 1754 Franklin recruited an ambitious Natural philosophy and ethics (or "moral mathematicks." He would have charge of young Scotsman, William Smith, to teach philosophy"), on the other hand, "Logick, Rhetorick, Ethicks, and Natural represented the "new learning" of Bacon, the oldest students — those generally Philosophy." These were subjects typically Newton, and Locke. By bundling in a between the ages of twelve and sixteen — who had either completed the English reserved for collegiate education in the single portfolio both the ancient learning School course or received primary school British universities. Their combination in and the new, William Smith appealed not education elsewhere. The curriculum a single professorship revealed the only to Franklin, but also to the most began with vocabulary and grammar and profound changes sweeping across higher conservative of Penn's Trustees. soon advanced to writing exercises in education in the 18th century, a rapid Latin. Within two years the students were transition from the "old learning" to the Within six months of his appointment, expected to "turn Latin into English, with new. Logic, rhetoric, and grammar were Smith petitioned the Trustees for an great Regard to Punctuation and Choice of the three time-honored elements of the amended charter, one which would provide Words" and thereafter to compose and medieval "Trivium." For hundreds of years for the granting of degrees. Smith argued deliver speeches in both English and Latin, European scholars had combined them that if a college curriculum were not added with arithmetic, geometry, music, and "with proper Grace both of Elocution and soon, Penn would begin to lose students to Gesture." astronomy (the "Quadrivium") to form the other institutions, where they could earn the bachelor of arts degree. The and 1776; the University of the Trustees accepted Smith's advice State of Pennsylvania graduated and soon applied to the Penn an average of eleven; but in family proprietors for a collegiate the fifteen years between 1795 charter. In 1755 the Academy and 1810, the University of became the College and Academy Pennsylvania conferred fewer of Philadelphia, and in 1757, than five bachelor of arts degrees Penn held its first Commencement. each year.

Among the Academy's first It was during the last of these students in 1751, nearly thirty three periods that Penn began to eventually matriculated in the earn a national reputation as a College of Philadelphia and great university for medical fourteen of those earned the education. The Medical bachelor of arts degree. They Department, as it was then formed a very distinguished first known, had been small, class. Three quickly became graduating a total of 120 students high-ranking public officials in in its first quarter century. Like colonial Pennsylvania; three were the College, it was reorganized in elected to the Continental 1792 under the University of Congress; one was a Signer of the Pennsylvania, but unlike the Declaration of Independence; six College, it thrived in its new served as Generals or Colonels in environment. At the the American Revolution; one Commencement of 1796 the was a Signer of the U.S. number of students who earned Constitution; one was elected to the M.D. degree surpassed the the U.S. Congress; two were number who took the A.B. It appointed U.S. Federal judges; was an unheralded signpost in one was elected Governor of the University history. In the fifteen Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; years that followed, the students and eleven became Trustees of the who earned the M.D. degree University of Pennsylvania. became twice, then four times, then six times greater in number Penn in 1801: The College than those earning the A.B. Surpassed by the School Commencement Program of 1851. Among the twenty members of By 1820 the University of the College Class of 1851, the name of Joseph Van Pelt stands out at of Pennsylvania had firmly Penn today, because it was his nephew, David, who became the largest In 1779, in the midst of the individual contributor to the new University Library in 1960. Collections established itself as the first (and American Revolution, the of the University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center at that time, only) national College of Philadelphia became school of medical education. the University of the State of Pennsylvania through several years' training in the and thereby became the first institution of classical languages. In 1801 only twenty- Penn in 1851: The Preeminence of higher learning in British North America four students were enrolled in the Latin Medical Education Leads to Schools to take the name "University." In the years School and only six in the two-year of Law and Engineering that followed, however, the College College course. On the other hand, the By mid-century, enrollment in the Medical struggled to find its place in the University. English and Mathematical schools Department annually exceeded 450 Admission to the College remained open remained very popular, enrolling fully students, more than five times the only to those who first mastered Latin and 80 percent of Penn's 150 students. The enrollment in the College. There were two Greek, and very few Philadelphians were colonial College had graduated an average or three signature events which propelled sufficiently interested to put their sons of seven in the twenty years between 1757 Penn's reputation. In 1828 the faculty had financed a custom-built Medical Hall on professions" also appealed to the Trustees Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, the new Ninth Street campus, and in 1841 and in 1852 a School of Mines, Arts and Psychology, Romance Languages, Semitics, had established an outpatient dispensary Manufactures was established. As Penn Sociology, and Zoology. for clinical education. Thousands of celebrated its centennial and looked ahead student physicians were introduced to to the last half of the 19th century, it was It would nevertheless be misleading to profound advances in bedside examination clearly returning to the utilitarian ideals describe the University of a century ago and postmortem analysis. first proposed by Benjamin Franklin. without noting the extent to which the educational enterprise was dominated by In 1851 the Medical Department attracted Penn in 1901: The Modern University professional education. A brief look at the students from twenty-six of the nation's Emerges number and different types of degrees thirty-one states and nine foreign states or The modern university is a research conferred at the 1901 Commencement countries. At the separately held Medical institution, a place where learning is the provides ample documentation. The Commencement in 1851, the Trustees foundation for the advancement of School of Medicine, as previously awarded the M.D. degree to 166 graduates. knowledge. The redefinition of Penn as a discussed, was Penn's largest. It awarded The Medical Class of 1851 included fifty- research institution began in 1882 when 160 degrees in 1901, a figure comparable one from Pennsylvania, but also twenty- Provost William Pepper established the to that of fifty years earlier. The School of five from Virginia, twenty-one from Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Dental Medicine, established in 1878, was North Carolina, and ten each from it was confirmed in 1889 when Penn already close behind, with 157 graduates. Mississippi and Tennessee. 1851 was fully conferred its first Ph.D. Penn's Graduate The Law School was the third largest, with representative of the entire 19th century: School was one of the first to organize students came to Penn primarily to earn itself by "graduate group," that is by those the M.D. degree. Not until 1904 would subjects which belong to a common the M.D. relinquish its place as Penn's academic discipline. The supervision of most popular degree. graduate studies by "Group Committees" later became the model for American During this same period, there were other research universities generally and it Philadelphians, including several of the continues to thrive today at Penn. In Trustees, who believed that a university was 1895, Pepper's successor, Provost Charles the proper place for professional education Custis Harrison, assisted by other members and training in many fields. George of his family, provided a half million dollar

Sharswood, a Philadelphia judge, had endowment for the Graduate School — one prevailed upon the Trustees to permit of the greatest gifts in Penn's history — an him to open a Law Department at the amount sufficient to fund eight graduate University. The Department was an scholarships, nineteen graduate fellowships, immediate and huge success. Sharswood and five post-doctoral fellowships. By enrolled sixty-six students in the first year 1901 the Graduate School had awarded and in 1852, not only graduated the doctoral degrees in no fewer than twenty first class, but also recruited two of fields of specialization: Astronomy, Botany, Roxana Hayward Vivian (1871-1961), pictured here about 1930, was the first woman to earn Philadelphia's most prominent practicing Chemistry, Economics, Education, English, Penn's Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1901. Photo- attorneys to join him on the faculty. Geology and Mineralogy, Germanics, grapher unknown. Collections of the University of Systematic instruction in the "mechanical Greek, History, Latin, Mathematics, Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center. 79 graduates. The College was fourth, graduates of fifteen schools. Newspaper under construction at the Hospital of the followed by Engineering, the Graduate reports celebrated the event as the largest University; the David Rittenhouse School, Wharton, Veterinary Medicine, graduation ceremony in Penn's history. Laboratory for physics, astronomy, and and Fine Arts, in that order. Of the total Business had replaced medicine and mathematics would soon be underway at of 565 degrees, 83.7%, 33rd and Walnut Streets; or five of every six, were and ground had been professional degrees. broken for Dietrich Hall,

In this respect — the the new Wharton School proportion of professional building. Sponsored to liberal arts degrees — research was soon to Penn in 1901 was transform the faculty and virtually unchanged bring to Penn a greatly- from Penn in 1851. enhanced reputation for academic excellence. In Penn in 1951: 1954 Penn would join in A Time for Change the founding of the Ivy Fifty years ago the League and commit itself University held to strengthening the Commencement in the intellectual environment Municipal Auditorium on on campus, particularly South 34th Street. The in undergraduate late Harold E. Stassen, education. In these Penn's first President of and many other ways national stature, presided the 1950s and 1960s over the ceremonies. The Elizabeth Cecilia Berrang (1898-1987), a 1922 graduate of the School of Nursing of were decades of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, rose through the ranks of HUP adminis- Municipal Auditorium tration to become Director of the Hospital in 1948. She is pictured here in 1951 receiv- extraordinary innovation must have held ing an honorary Master of Science degree from the President of the University, the late and improvement. bittersweet memories for , on the left. Photographer unknown. Collections of the University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center. Stassen. It was here, as Looking back over the the 33-year-old "boy past fifty years, a number wonder" Governor of Minnesota, that he dentistry as the most popular degree of watershed events stand out, some better was the keynote speaker at the Republican program, but training for the professions known than others. In 1954, under a new Party's 1940 convention, but it was here was still the principal work done on President, Gaylord P. Harnwell, the too that Thomas E. Dewey, Governor of campus and accounted for more than two- undergraduate classrooms of the New York, deprived him of the Party's thirds of the degrees awarded. Student life Engineering School and the Wharton 1948 nomination for U.S. President. was still focused on Houston Hall, the School were opened to women. With Dewey, of course, was defeated in Quadrangle, fraternities, and sororities. that decision, Penn made a long-term November, when Harry Truman delivered commitment, one renewed by each of one of the most famous upsets in American Penn was changing, however, and more Harnwell's successors, to inclusiveness in political history. rapidly than most realized. The nation the University community. Three goals was on the cusp of twenty years of stood out among the many efforts to The University of Pennsylvania had uninterrupted and steadily expanding transform Penn's environment. The first flourished in the half century since the investment in higher education. Powerful was a firmly-held belief that no incoming days of Provost Harrison. Numbers alone new planning tools and enormous new student who applied for financial aid and seemed sufficient to confirm this view. At sources of funding were already being demonstrated his or her need should be the Commencement of 1951, more than made available to the Trustees for physical turned away from Penn. In 1965 the 2,400 degrees were conferred upon plant expansion. The Gates Pavilion was University proudly announced that every student who required financial aid had obtained it in the form of outright grants, loans, or work-study jobs. With that the modern era of need-blind admissions was born. The second was codified in 1967, when the University formally revised its admissions policy to increase minority presence on campus, a commitment which has been renewed and strengthened several times in subsequent decades. The third goal was realized in 1970, when "Physics" Building, now the David Rittenhouse Laboratories. The departments of Astronomy, Mathematics, and the high-rise dormitories opened Physics were reunited for the first time in more than half a century when the David Rittenhouse Laboratories opened in on Superblock. In that year, the September 1954. Collections of the University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center. student body, in still another historical first, became primarily residential rather than commuter. any other degree. For more than a century The increasing popularity of undergraduate and a half the honor of most-sought-after liberal arts education at Penn has also been Toward a More Diversified Institution degree had been held successively by accompanied by a growing recognition In the years since 1970, Penn has built medicine, dentistry, and business. Not that Penn's undergraduate programs have on the achievements of the Harnwell until 1914 did the College faculty drop its become some of the nation's best. For the administration. Among the most notable classical Greek requirement and not until past decade and more, Penn has often been would be the establishment, in 1973, of 1930 its Latin requirement. Finally freed ranked among the top ten universities in the Penn Women's Center and its more from its dependence on 17th century America, a more prominent position than recent move to Locust Walk; the merger, precedents, Penn's undergraduate liberal it had fifty or one hundred years ago. in 1975, of the College and the College arts curriculum soon reflected the modern It is affirming testimony, it seems, that for Women and the creation of the School ideal of "imparting general knowledge and the commitment of three generations of Arts and Sciences; the establishment, developing general intellectual capacities." of Pennsylvanians to strengthening in 1984, of the Albert M. Greenfield In 1960 the value of that modern ideal undergraduate education has paid Intercultural Center to serve the needs of finally found expression in the number extraordinary dividends, and it is a happy Penn's student of color communities; the of students earning the bachelor of arts circumstance that would make Benjamin achievement, in 1996, for the first time in degree, and in the forty years since then Franklin proud. Penn's history, of the enrollment of more the bachelor of arts has only strengthened women than men in the undergraduate its position at Penn. At today's programs of the University; the Commencement the bachelor of arts Mark Frazier Lloyd establishment, in 1998, of Civic House, degree will be conferred on almost twice Director, a central office for Penn students' as many students as its nearest competitor. University Archives and Records Center community service activities; and the opening, in 2000, of Perelman Quad, an inspiring re-invention and rebirth of Penn's undergraduate student center.

In the long view of Penn's history, however, it might be said that the most remarkable event in the past fifty years occurred in 1960. At the Commencement of that year, for the first time since 1795, the University awarded more bachelor of arts degrees than