The University of Pennsylvania: Foundation and Early Teaching

The year 1740, adopted by the University of Pennsylvania as its founding date, originally refers to a Philadelphia trust for preaching and the education of poor children. Supporters of George Whitefield began constructing the “New Building” near Fourth Street as a shared setting for interdenominational preaching and charitable teaching. Cheyney's official history notes that the building gradually took shape while the educational plan long remained unrealized. University courses cannot be said to have begun on that basis.

The trust and property later passed to the trustees of the Philadelphia Academy. Formation of a board in 1749, the start of teaching in 1751, incorporation by charter in 1753, and acquisition of degree-awarding powers in 1755 were separate stages. On June 6, 1899, the trustees affirmed 1740 as the starting point on the basis of continuity of the trust. This was a retrospectively selected founding year whose meaning must be distinguished from the actual start of classes.

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Benjamin Franklin printed Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania in 1749, first seeking readers' views on subjects, their sequence, and school management before pursuing implementation. His proposed corporation could receive gifts, acquire land, and appoint teachers. Trustees were also to visit regularly and help students enter commerce or public affairs later in life. Education was thus directly connected with Philadelphia's social needs.

Franklin called for books, maps, globes, mathematical instruments, and equipment for experiments in natural philosophy, and advocated writing, arithmetic, bookkeeping, and physical exercise. Reading history could introduce geography, politics, ethics, and debate. Students need not all receive identical training in classical languages, but should also study languages appropriate to their intended occupations. He nevertheless advocated Christian education, so the plan cannot be described as a modern curriculum entirely detached from religion.

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Turning a proposal into a school required continuing expenditure on construction, repairs, and teachers. Accounts and municipal records reproduced in Montgomery's history show that support extended beyond Franklin: individual trustees subscribed funds, the Barclay firm in London donated £100, and Philadelphia's municipal authorities granted £200 for building repairs in 1750 and promised a total of £100 annually for five years to support the Academy and Charity School.

The municipal grant also reserved the right to recommend one charity student each year for free education at the Academy. An opening ceremony was held on January 7, 1751, although the classrooms were not all finished, and students temporarily attended classes in William Allen's warehouse. Fundraising, construction, and teaching did not proceed in neatly completed stages. When the school began operating, teachers already had separate responsibilities for English, classical languages, and mathematics, assisted by additional staff.

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On July 13, 1753, Thomas Penn and Richard Penn granted a charter incorporating the trustees of the Academy and Charity School with perpetual succession and powers to hold property, receive gifts, litigate, and make rules. Circumstances such as a trustee moving more than five miles from the school or leaving the province would trigger a replacement election. These arrangements closely connected management with local society.

The supplementary charter of May 14, 1755, added the College to the institution's name and provided for a provost, vice-provost, and professors, appointing William Smith and Francis Alison to the first two offices. Degrees required a public examination and a recommendation signed by at least thirteen trustees. Faculty organization, trustee management, and degree qualifications were thereby linked, although oaths of office retained restrictions associated with the British Crown and the Protestant political order.

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The Academy, College, and Charity School shared connected organizations and premises, but did not represent the same educational level. The 1753 charter explicitly distinguished fee-paying pupils and poor children taught without charge. Trustees thus had simultaneous responsibilities to sustain finances, organize more advanced teaching, and fulfill the charitable trust. Free education formed part of the institution without automatically eliminating differences in families' access to learning.

In November 1753, the trustees discussed employing Mrs. Holwell to teach thirty poor girls reading, sewing, and knitting. The following meeting's minutes show that she was already teaching in an upstairs room of the Academy; in 1754, she received funds for books and needlework materials. This documented girls' class belonged to charitable elementary education. It does not establish that women could already enter the College and receive degrees.

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On May 30–31, 1765, John Morgan spoke at the College's commencement and subsequently published A Discourse upon the Institution of Medical Schools in America. He advocated progressive training in anatomy, materia medica and botany, chemistry, theory, and clinical practice, opposing independent medical practice based merely on scattered reading or a hurried apprenticeship. This was a proposed educational program of the time and must be distinguished from a situation in which every course was already in operation.

Taking Edinburgh as a model, Morgan envisaged linking college lectures with observation of cases and clinical teaching at the Philadelphia hospital. Several hospital physicians were also college trustees, supplying personal connections for cooperation. He further noted that William Shippen Jr. already had experience teaching anatomy and was suited to the corresponding appointment. Early Penn thus represented more than continuity of property: it became an institution for organizing teachers, gathering resources, and introducing knowledge across the Atlantic.

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