Home > University of Pennsylvania
| Motto |
Leges sine Moribus vanae
(Laws without morals are in vain) |
| Established |
1740 |
| School type |
Private |
| President |
Amy Gutmann |
| Location |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Enrollment |
9,917 undergraduate, 8,996 graduate |
| Faculty |
4,499 |
| Campus |
Urban |
| Athletics |
33 varsity teams |
| Homepage |
www.upenn.edu |
The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn or UPenn) is a private university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a member of the Ivy League.
In 1749, eager to create a college to educate future generations, Benjamin Franklin wrote and circulated a pamphlet titled "Proposals for the Education of Youth in Pensilvania." Unlike the other four American Colonial colleges -- Harvard, William and Mary, Yale and Princeton -- Franklin's new school would not focus on education for the clergy. He advocated an innovative concept of higher education, one which would teach both the ornamental knowledge of the arts and the practical skills necessary for making a living and doing public service. The proposed program of study became the nation's first modern liberal arts curriculum.
Franklin assembled a board of trustees from among the leading citizens of the city, the first such non-sectarian board in America, and looked about for the least costly way to build a campus.
In 1740, a group of working class Philadelphians had decided to erect a great preaching hall for the evangelist George Whitefield. It was the largest building in the city, and it was also planned to serve as a charity school for "the instruction of poor children." The fundraising, however, for both the building and the school had fallen short and the plans for both chapel and school were suspended. Franklin saw an opportunity to open his Academy quickly and inexpensively and in 1751 the Academy, using the great hall at 4th and Arch Streets, took in its first students. A charity school also was opened in accordance with the intentions of the original "New Building" donors.
The University cites the earlier date as its founding, which enables it to claim to be older than its athletic archrival Princeton. However it is the fifth oldest college and oldest university in the United States.
It holds the latter claim by the virtue of the establishment of its medical school, the first in the American colonies, in 1765. Penn has continued that innovative tradition with the founding of the first university teaching hospital in 1874Events January 1 New York City annexes The Bronx January 23 Marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria, to Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, only daughter of Emperor Alexander III of Russia. January Signing of the Pangkor Tr; the creation of the Wharton School, the world's first collegiate school of business, in 1881Events January 16- 24 ? Siege of Geok Tepe ? Russian troops under general Skobeleff defeat Turkomans January 25 Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company February 5 Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated. February 13 First issu; the construction of Houston Hall, the first American student union building, in 1896Events January 4 Utah is admitted as the 45th U. January 5 An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Rontgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays. January 12 H. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph. January 18 The X-ray machine is exhib; and the building of ENIACENIAC short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer was the first all-electronic computer designed to be Turing-complete, capable of being reprogrammed by rewiring to solve a full range of computing problems. It was preceded in 1941 by the fully, the world's first electronic, large-scale, general-purpose digital computer in 1946Events January January 4 Theodore Schurch becomes the last person to be executed for offences committed under the Treachery Act of 1940 January 7 Allied recognize Austrian republic with 1937 borders the country is divided into four occupation zones Januar.
