The following is a list of the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, which began operating in 1751 as a secondary school, the Academy of Philadelphia, and added an institution of higher learning in 1755, the College of Philadelphia .
Provost [note 1] | Birth–death | Years as provost | Name of institution | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | The Reverend George Whitefield [note 2] | 1714–1770 | 1740–1749 | Unnamed Charity School [note 3] | |
2 | Benjamin Franklin [note 4] | 1706–1790 | 1749–1754 | Academy of Philadelphia | |
3 | The Reverend William Smith | 1727–1803 | 1754–1779 | College of Philadelphia | American Revolution |
4 | The Reverend John Ewing | 1732–1802 | 1779–1802 | University of Pennsylvania | American Revolution |
5 | The Reverend William Smith | 1751–1820 | 1802–1806 | University of Pennsylvania | |
6 | The Reverend John McDowell | 1732–1802 | 1807–1810 | University of Pennsylvania | |
7 | The Reverend John Andrews | 1746–1813 | 1810–1813 | University of Pennsylvania | |
8 | The Reverend Frederick Beasley | 1777–1845 | 1813–1828 | University of Pennsylvania | |
9 | The Right Reverend William Heathcote DeLancey | 1797–1865 | 1828–1834 | University of Pennsylvania | |
10 | The Reverend John Ludlow | 1793–1857 | 1834–1852 | University of Pennsylvania | |
11 | The Reverend Henry Vethake | 1790–1866 | 1853–1859 | University of Pennsylvania | |
12 | The Reverend Daniel Raynes Goodwin | 1811–1890 | 1860–1868 | University of Pennsylvania | |
13 | Charles Janeway Stillé | 1819–1899 | 1868–1880 | University of Pennsylvania | |
14 | William Pepper | 1843–1898 | 1881–1894 | University of Pennsylvania | |
15 | Charles Custis Harrison | 1844–1929 | 1894–1910 | University of Pennsylvania | |
16 | Edgar Fahs Smith | 1854–1928 | 1910–1920 | University of Pennsylvania | |
17 | Josiah Harmar Penniman | 1868–1940 | 1923–1930 | University of Pennsylvania | |
Presidents of the University of Pennsylvania | Years as president | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Thomas Sovereign Gates | 1930–1944 | |
2 | George William McClelland | 1944–1948 | |
3 | Harold Stassen | 1948–1953 | |
- | William Hagan DuBarry | 1953–1953, Acting President | |
4 | Gaylord Probasco Harnwell | 1953–1970 | |
5 | Martin Meyerson | 1970–1981 | |
6 | Sheldon Hackney | 1981–1993 | |
- | Claire Fagin | 1993–1994, Interim President | |
7 | Judith Rodin | 1994–2004 | |
8 | Amy Gutmann | 2004–2022 | |
- | Wendell Pritchett | 2022–2022, Interim President | |
9 | M. Elizabeth Magill | 2022–2023 | Shortest tenure |
- | J. Larry Jameson | 2023-Present, Interim President |
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.
The University of Pennsylvania 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.
1751 (MDCCLI) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1751st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 751st year of the 2nd millennium, the 51st year of the 18th century, and the 2nd year of the 1750s decade. As of the start of 1751, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
George Whitefield, also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican minister and preacher who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement. Born in Gloucester, he matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1732. There, he joined the "Holy Club" and was introduced to John and Charles Wesley, with whom he would work closely in his later ministry. Unlike the Wesleys, he embraced Calvinism.
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.
The colonial colleges are nine institutions of higher education chartered in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution before the founding of the United States. 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.
Pennsylvania Hospital is a private, non-profit, 515-bed teaching hospital located at 800 Spruce Street in Center City Philadelphia, The hospital was founded on May 11, 1751 by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Bond, and was the second established public hospital but had the first surgical amphitheatre in the United States. and its first medical library. It is part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Gilbert Tennent was a Presbyterian revivalist minister in Colonial America. Born into a Scotch-Irish family in County Armagh, Ireland, he migrated to America with his parents, studied theology, and along with Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, became one of the leaders of the evangelical revival known as the First Great Awakening. His most famous sermon, On the Danger of an Unconverted Ministry, also known as the "Nottingham Sermon," compared "Old Side" ministers to the biblical Pharisees of the Gospels, triggering a schism in the Presbyterian Church which lasted for 17 years. A prolific writer, Tennent would later work towards reunification of the two synods involved.
The Academy and College of Philadelphia (1749–1791) was a boys' school and men's college in Philadelphia in the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania.
Bethesda Academy is a boys' school and former orphanage located in unincorporated Chatham County, Georgia, in the United States, near Savannah. Its historic building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Richard Peters, born in Liverpool became an attorney, Anglican minister, and civil servant. In 1735 he emigrated to Pennsylvania, where he served in numerous posts for the Penn family, including on the Governor's Council from 1749 to 1775, and eventually became rector of Christ Church in Philadelphia.
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.
An academic procession is a traditional ceremony in which university dignitaries march together wearing traditional academic dress. An academic procession forms a usual part of college and university graduation exercises. At many U.S. universities, the colors and styles of regalia are determined by a uniform dress code established in 1895.
Edmund Woolley (c.1695—1771) was an English-born American architect and master carpenter, best known for building Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
William Smith was an Episcopal priest who served as the third and fifth provost of the College of Philadelphia, which became the University of Pennsylvania. He founded Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, and St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. He founded the borough of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where he was a significant land owner.
Isaac Norris was a merchant and statesman in the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania, in British America.
The Quadrangle Dormitories are a complex of 39 conjoined residence houses at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The architectural firm of Cope and Stewardson designed the houses in an exuberant Neo-Jacobean version of the Collegiate Gothic style, and completed most of them between 1894 and 1912. The dormitories stretch from 36th to 38th Streets and from Spruce Street to Hamilton Walk. West of the Memorial Tower at 37th Street, the houses on the north side follow the diagonal of Woodland Avenue and form a long triangle with the houses on the south side. From 1895 to 1971, the dormitories housed only male students.
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 Reverend George Whitefield is a monumental statue which once stood on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Dedicated in 1919, it was designed by sculptor R. Tait McKenzie and honors its namesake George Whitefield, Anglican cleric who was a founder of Methodism. In 2020, in reaction to the George Floyd protests, the university administration removed the statue due to Whitefield's defense of slavery.
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.