First university in the United States

Last updated

Harvard University has operated under the same corporation since 1650, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Harvard Yard aerial.JPG
Harvard University has operated under the same corporation since 1650, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.

The first university in the United States is a status asserted by more than one university in the United States. Harvard University, founded in 1636, is the oldest operating university in the United States. From 1898 to 1946, however, when the Philippines were a U.S. territory, the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, established in 1611, was considered the oldest university under the American flag. [2]

Contents

There is no consensus national definition of what entitles an institution to be considered a university versus a college. Differing definitions are used at the state level, and the common understanding of university has evolved over time. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica describes the gradual emergence of U.S. universities as follows: [3]

In the United States the word university has been applied to institutions of the most diverse character, and it is only since 1880 or thereabouts that an effort has been seriously made to distinguish between collegiate and university instruction; nor has that effort yet completely succeeded. Harvard, William and Mary, and Yale . . . were organized . . . on the plans of the English colleges which constitute the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Graduates of Harvard and Yale carried these British traditions to other places, and similar colleges grew up in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.... Around or near these nuclei, during the course of the 19th century, one or more professional schools were frequently attached, and so the word university was naturally applied to a group of schools associated more or less closely with a central school or college. Harvard, for example, most comprehensive of all, has seventeen distinct departments, and Yale has almost as many. Columbia and Penn have a similar scope. In the latter part of the 19th century Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Brown, in recognition of their enlargement, formally changed their titles from colleges to universities.

The issue is further confused by the fact that at time of founding of many of the institutions in question, the United States did not exist as a sovereign nation. Questions of institutional continuity sometimes make it difficult to determine the true age of any institution. The status of first university, which includes private universities, is distinct from the claim of oldest public university in the United States, a title claimed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (first operating), University of Georgia (first chartered), and the College of William & Mary (initially private).

Claimants and potential claimants

Several universities claim to be the first university in the United States:

Claims of first university in the United States

Institutional age

Harvard University calls itself "the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States", and this claim is rarely challenged. It is possible to disagree what year should be taken as Harvard's real founding date. Harvard uses the earliest possible one, 1636, the year in which the Massachusetts General Court resolved to establish a fund in a year's time for a "School or College" to be started, which occurred in 1637 when the Massachusetts Bay Colony issued Harvard a charter. [11] However, Harvard has operated since 1650 under the same corporation, the "President and Fellows of Harvard College"; as such, it has an unbroken institutional history dating back to the mid seventeenth century.

The University of Pennsylvania claims to be the first university in America, drawing a distinction between this and the first college: "In the Anglo-American model, a college, by definition, is a faculty whose subject specialization is in a single academic field. This is usually arts and sciences (often referred to as 'liberal arts'), but may also be one of the professions: law, medicine, theology, etc. A university, by contrast, is the co-existence, under a single institutional umbrella, of more than one faculty. With the founding of the first medical school in America (in 1765; Columbia was second), Penn became America's first university." [6]

The College of William & Mary calls itself "the second-oldest institution of higher learning in the country", [12] acknowledging Harvard's claim but adding that: "Harvard may have opened first, but William & Mary was already planned. Original 1619 plans for W&M called for a campus at Henrico." This refers to the College of Henricopolis or University of Henrico established by the Virginia Company near Richmond, Virginia. [note 2] With respect to the title of first university in America, it makes the claim on its website that "in 1781, by uniting the faculties of law, medicine, and the arts, William & Mary became America's first true university." [13] Elsewhere on the website, it also claims to be the "First institution of higher education to have a law school, which made us the first college in the country to become a university (1779)". [14]

Official designation as a university

Harvard University

The Constitution of Massachusetts, submitted by James Bowdoin, Samuel Adams, and John Adams to the full Convention on October 28, 1779 [15] and ratified on June 15, 1780, contains this language: [16]

Chapter V. The University at Cambridge, and Encouragement of Literature, etc.
Section I. The University.
Art. I.--Whereas our wise and pious ancestors, so early as the year one thousand six hundred and thirty six, laid the foundation of Harvard-College, in which University many persons of great eminence have, by the blessing of GOD, been initiated in those arts and sciences, which qualified them for public employments, both in Church and State: And whereas the encouragement of Arts and Sciences, and all good literature, tends to the honor of God, the advantage of the christian religion, and the great benefit of this, and the other United States of America--It is declared, That the PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD-COLLEGE, in their corporate capacity, and their successors in that capacity, their officers and servants, shall have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy, all the powers, authorities, rights, liberties, privileges, immunities and franchises, which they now have, or are entitled to have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy: And the same are hereby ratified and confirmed unto them, the said President and Fellows of Harvard-College, and to their successors, and to their officers and servants, respectively, forever.

The word "university" is used a total of five times in reference to Harvard in the Massachusetts Constitution. It is not clear from context, either above or in the paragraphs that follow, that the constitution meant to draw any semantic distinction between "college" and "university."

In George Washington's honorary Doctor of Laws degree, conferred by Harvard on April 30, 1776, the text of the degree refers to Harvard twice as "our University". [17]

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania claims that the 1779 charter from the Pennsylvania state legislature, establishing the university in Philadelphia and passing of a 1785 law naming the "University of the State of Pennsylvania" [18] allows Penn to assert that "No other American institution of higher learning was named "University " before Penn was so named." [6] [19] [20]

The newly–designated university was intended to continue the College of Philadelphia, established by Benjamin Franklin and chartered in 1755 alongside an academy chartered in 1753. However, the Pennsylvania legislature in 1779 suspected the provost of the College of Philadelphia, William Smith, and the existing board of trustees of loyalist sympathies. They therefore created a new board for the university, taking over the old college and academy. Following protests by Smith and the trustees of the college, the legislature reinstated the college's 1753 and 1755 charters in 1789 and the college regained possession of its buildings, with the university moving to the Philosophical Society Hall. This arrangement lasted two years before, following the adoption of a new constitution by the state, a new charter in 1791 merged the College of Philadelphia and the University of the State of Pennsylvania, forming the University of Pennsylvania. [19] [20]

William and Mary

On December 4, 1779, just seven days after the founding of the "University of the State of Pennsylvania", an event occurred which the College of William & Mary describes thus: [21]

Under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, then governor of Virginia and a member of the Board of Visitors, William and Mary became a university. The grammar and divinity schools were discontinued, and a professorship of anatomy and medicine, and the first American chairs of law and police and modern languages were established. The elective system of studies was introduced at this time, the first such program in the United States.

For historical reasons, the College of William & Mary, like Dartmouth College and Boston College, has continued to use "college" rather than "university" in its official name.

In 2020, William and Mary law professor Thomas McSweeney along with two undergraduate students published an article in the William and Mary Law Review pointing out that the Latin text of the university's 1693 royal charter referred to the institution as a studium generale , translated in the English text by the relatively insignificant "place of universal study". They argue that by creating the institution as a studium generale, which was the technical term used for a university in the middle ages, William and Mary was granted the status of a university in its 1693 charter. [22] The same phrase was noted by Jurgen Herbst in 1982, who said: "The charter used the Latin term studium generale to suggest possible growth into a full-fledged university". [23] Edward Eggleston in 1900 noted that: "[the English text of the charter] is printed with Harwell, Blair and Clinton's account of Virginia, and the copy of the latter in the Library of Congress is annotated by some critic, who notes slight variations on the sense of the English version of the charter from the Latin original. The phrase 'studium generale' has a sense hardly appreciated by those who copied it from the ancient charter for William and Mary." [24]

Doctorate degrees

If a university is defined as an institution that awards doctoral degrees, then there are a number of contenders for the title of oldest United States university based on that criterion. Among the conflicting interpretations is whether the date the first doctoral degree is awarded should be the determining factor, or the date a doctoral program was first attempted is the determinant. Harvard University, which awarded its first doctoral degree in 1692, was the first university in the nation to offer doctorates.

Harvard University

Harvard University has awarded honorary "doctorates" since the 17th century. In 1692, it issued a Doctor of Sacred Theology degree to Increase Mather, [25] the first honorary degree in the New World. [26]

University of Pennsylvania

In 1765, the University of Pennsylvania founded the first medical school in the nation, according to Penn's archivist, although this did not initially award doctorates. [27] [28]

Columbia University

King's College (now Columbia University) organized a medical faculty in 1767, and in 1769 became the first institution in the North American Colonies to confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine, according to the College of Physicians and Surgeons. [29]

Yale University

Yale University's established its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1847, which awarded the first PhD in the United States in 1861. [30]

Georgetown University

Georgetown University founded its graduate school in 1820, with the first doctoral program being established in 1897. [31]

See also

Notes

  1. The university officially uses 1740 as its founding date and has since 1899. The ideas and intellectual inspiration for the academic institution stem from 1749, with a pamphlet published by Benjamin Franklin, (1705/1706–1790). When Franklin's institution was established, it inhabited a schoolhouse built on November 14, 1740, for another school, which never came to practical fruition . Penn archivist Mark Frazier Lloyd notes: "In 1899, UPenn's Trustees adopted a resolution that established 1740 as the founding date, but good cases may be made for 1749, when Franklin first convened the Trustees, or 1751, when the first classes were taught at the affiliated secondary school for boys, Academy of Philadelphia, or 1755, when Penn obtained its collegiate charter to add a post-secondary institution, the College of Philadelphia." Princeton's library presents another, diplomatically phrased view.
  2. This institution received a royal charter in 1618 and operated a school for several years before being destroyed with the town during the Indian Massacre of 1622, but it never offered college-level instruction. The following year, King James I dissolved the Virginia Company, converting the Colony of Virginia to a crown colony. William and Mary was founded under a new charter in 1693.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivy League</span> Athletic conference of American universities

The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference of eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, and in football, in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The term Ivy League is used more broadly to refer to the eight schools that belong to the league, which are globally-renowned as elite colleges associated with academic excellence, highly selective admissions, and social elitism. The term was used as early as 1933, and it became official in 1954 following the formation of the Ivy League athletic conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pennsylvania</span> U.S. state

Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio and the Ohio River to its west, Lake Erie and New York to its north, the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east, and the Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest via Lake Erie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Pennsylvania</span> Private university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US

The University of Pennsylvania, commonly referenced as Penn or UPenn, is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges and was chartered prior to the U.S. Declaration of Independence when Benjamin Franklin, the university's founder and first president, advocated for an educational institution that trained leaders in academia, commerce, and public service. Penn identifies as the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, though this representation is challenged by other universities since Franklin first convened the board of trustees in 1749, arguably making it the fifth-oldest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient university</span> British and Irish universities founded before 1600

The ancient universities are British and Irish medieval universities and early modern universities founded before the year 1600. Four of these are located in Scotland, two in England, and one in Ireland. The ancient universities in Great Britain and Ireland are amongst the oldest extant universities in the world. The ancient universities in Britain are part of twenty-seven culturally significant institutions recognised by the British monarchy as privileged bodies of the United Kingdom.

The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Penn Carey Law offers the degrees of Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Laws (LL.M.), Master of Comparative Laws (LL.C.M.), Master in Law (M.L.), and Doctor of the Science of Law (S.J.D.).

This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from before the lead up to the American Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Ellery</span> Founding Father of the United States (1727–1820)

William Ellery was a Founding Father of the United States, one of the 56 signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, and a signer of the Articles of Confederation as a representative of Rhode Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Province of Pennsylvania</span> British colony in North America (1681–1776)

The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from "Penn's Woods", referring to William Penn's father Admiral Sir William Penn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court</span> Highest court in the U.S. state of Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the distinction of being the oldest continuously functioning appellate court in the Americas, with a recognized history dating to the establishment of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature in 1692 under the charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonial colleges</span> Nine oldest institutions of higher education in the United States

The colonial colleges are nine institutions of higher education chartered in the Thirteen Colonies before the founding of the United States of America during the American Revolution. These nine have long been considered together, notably since the survey of their origins in the 1907 The Cambridge History of English and American Literature.

In United States law, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, together with that Amendment's Free Exercise Clause, form the constitutional right of freedom of religion. The Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause together read:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Governor's Academy</span> Private, boarding school in Byfield, Massachusetts, United States

The Governor's Academy is a co-educational, college-preparatory day and boarding school in Byfield, Massachusetts. Established in 1763 in memory of Massachusetts governor William Dummer, Governor's is the oldest boarding school in New England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Penn Charter School</span> School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

William Penn Charter School is an independent school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1689 at the urging of William Penn as the "Public Grammar School" and chartered in 1689 to be operated by the "Overseers of the public School, founded by Charter in the town and county of Philadelphia" in Pennsylvania. It is the oldest Quaker school in the world, the oldest elementary school in Pennsylvania, and the fifth oldest elementary school in the United States following The Collegiate School, Boston Latin School (1635), Hartford Public High School (1638), and Roxbury Latin (1645).

The following is a timeline of women's colleges in the United States. These are institutions of higher education in the United States whose student population comprises exclusively, or almost exclusively, women. They are often liberal arts colleges. There are approximately 35 active women's colleges in the U.S. as of 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred L. Elwyn</span> American physician, author and philanthropist

Alfred Langdon Elwyn was an American medical doctor, writer and philanthropist. He was a pioneer in the education and care of people with mental and physical disabilities. He was one of the founding officers of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind in 1833 and founded the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children in 1852. The community of Elwyn, Pennsylvania and the Elwyn Institute are named in his honor.

The title of oldest public university in the United States is claimed by three universities: the University of Georgia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the College of William and Mary. Each has a distinct basis for the claim: North Carolina being the first to hold classes and graduate students as a public institution, Georgia being the first created by state charter, and William & Mary having the oldest founding and operations dates of any current public university, but it was a private institution for over 200 years, until 1906. While all three universities closed for a time as a result of the American Civil War, William and Mary was closed for over two decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Wilson (Founding Father)</span> Founding Father of the United States (1742–1798)

James Wilson was a Scottish-born American Founding Father, legal scholar, jurist, and statesman who served as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1789 to 1798. Wilson was elected twice to the Continental Congress, was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, and was a major participant in drafting the U.S. Constitution becoming one of only six people to sign both documents. A leading legal theorist, he was one of the first four Associate Justices appointed to the Supreme Court by George Washington. In his capacity as the first professor of law at the College of Philadelphia, he taught the first course on the new Constitution to President Washington and his Cabinet in 1789 and 1790.

The University of Pennsylvania College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) is the oldest undergraduate college at the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League university, situated on the university's main campus in University City, Philadelphia. The college traces its roots to the establishment of a secondary school known as Unnamed Charity School in 1740. In 1749, Benjamin Franklin and twenty-one leading citizens of Philadelphia officially founded a secondary school named the Academy of Philadelphia. In 1755, the secondary school was expanded to include a collegiate division known as the College of Philadelphia. The secondary and collegiate institutions were known collectively as The Academy and College of Philadelphia. The college received its charter from Thomas Penn and Richard Penn. Penn CAS is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of Pennsylvania and the sixth-oldest chartered college in the United States.

The University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. Its history began when in 1740, when a group of Philadelphians organized to erect a great preaching hall for George Whitefield, a traveling evangelist. The building was designed and constructed by Edmund Woolley and was the largest building in Philadelphia at the time, drawing thousands of people the first time in which it was preached. In the fall of 1749, Ben Franklin circulated a pamphlet, "Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania," his vision for what he called a "Public Academy of Philadelphia". On June 16, 1755, the College of Philadelphia was chartered, paving the way for the addition of undergraduate instruction.

References

  1. Rudolph, Frederick (1961). The American College and University. University of Georgia Press. p. 3. ISBN   0-8203-1285-1.
  2. McSweeney, Quentin. "SANTO TOMAS DE MANILA The First University of the Philippines" (PDF). Dominicana Journal. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  3. Gilman, Daniel Coit (1911). "Universities"  . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 776.
  4. For example, Bush, George Gary (1886). Harvard, the First American University. Cupples, Upham and Company, Boston..
  5. "A Brief History of the Constitution of 1780 and a Narrated Timeline". Social Law Library. 1999. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 Mark Frazier Lloyd (November 1999). "The University of Pennsylvania: America's First University". University of Pennsylvania Archives & Records Center. Archived from the original on July 11, 2006. Retrieved January 20, 2006.
  7. George E. Thomas; David B. Brownlee (2000). Building America's First University: An Historical and Architectural Guide to the University of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania University Press. ISBN   0-8122-3515-0.)
  8. "Penn's History". www.upenn.edu. University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on August 14, 2022. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
  9. "Achievements and Firsts". College of William and Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law. Archived from the original on February 20, 2006.
  10. "Johns Hopkins Fact Book: Everything you wanted to know about America's first research university" (PDF). Johns Hopkins University. 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 2, 2013. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  11. Edward Potts Cheyney, "History of the University of Pennsylvania: 1740-1940", Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940. 45-52
  12. "About W&M". College of William and Mary. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
  13. "History of William & Mary". College of William and Mary. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
  14. "Cool Facts". College of William and Mary. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
  15. "Chapter V: The University at Cambridge, and encouragement of literature, etc.". Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The General Court of Massachusetts. September 1, 1779. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
  16. "Fundamental Documents: Massachusetts Constitution". Press-pubs.uchicago.edu. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
  17. "THE NEW-ENGLAND CHRONICLE, Boston, April 25, 1776". Samuel Hall. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  18. https://web.archive.org/web/20060428155156/http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/1700s/penn1700s.html [ bare URL ]
  19. 1 2 "Penn in the 18th Century, University of Pennsylvania Archives". University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on April 28, 2006. Retrieved April 29, 2006.
  20. 1 2 "Statutes of the Trustees" . Retrieved July 15, 2022. (d) On November 27, 1779, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania passed an act for the establishment of a University incorporating the rights and powers of the College, Academy, and Charitable School. This was the first designation of an institution in the United States as a University;
  21. The College of William & Mary. "William & Mary – Historical Chronology of William and Mary". Wm.edu. Archived from the original on September 10, 2006. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
  22. Thomas J. McSweeney; Katharine Ello; Elsbeth O'Brien (2020). "A University in 1693: New Light on William & Mary's Claim to the Title "Oldest University in the United States"". William and Mary Law Review Online. 61: 4.
  23. Jurgen Herbst (1982). From Crisis to Crisis: American College Government, 1636-1819. Harvard University Press. p. 32. ISBN   978-0-674-32345-2.
  24. Edward Eggleston (1900). The Transit of Civilization from England to America in the Seventeenth Century. D. Appleton. p. 272. ISBN   978-1-4047-6008-0.
  25. "Honorary Degrees at Harvard". Harvard University Archives. 2014. Archived from the original on October 8, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  26. "HONORARY DEGREES: A SHORT HISTORY". Brandeis University. 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  27. "SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Historical development, 1765-1800". University of Pennsylvania Archives & Records Center. Archived from the original on August 24, 2006.
  28. "America's First University, University of Pennsylvania University Archives". Archives.upenn.edu. Archived from the original on July 11, 2006. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
  29. About the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Accessed 06/10/2009.
  30. "About: Yale and the World". Archived from the original on November 24, 2007. Retrieved January 22, 2006.
  31. "Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences :Tradition, Excellence, Innovation". grad.georgetown.edu. Archived from the original on August 14, 2007. Retrieved January 15, 2022.

Further reading