Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. The Commonwealth is bordered by Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to the northwest, New York to the north, and New Jersey to the east, while the Appalachian Mountains run through its middle.
The University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The university claims a founding date of 1740 and is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered prior to the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin, Penn's founder and first president, advocated an educational program that trained leaders in commerce, government, and public service, similar to a modern liberal arts curriculum.
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and community outreach. Considered the first learned society in the United States, it has played an important role in American cultural and intellectual life for over 270 years.
Delaware Colony in the North American Middle Colonies consisted of land on the west bank of the Delaware River Bay. In the early 17th century the area was inhabited by Lenape and possibly the Assateague tribes of Native Americans. The first European settlers in the area were Swedes, who were Lutheran Protestants, and the Dutch, who practiced Protestant Calvinism. The English took control in 1664, after defeating the Dutch in New Netherland.
The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania refers to William's father, Admiral Sir William Penn.
Philadelphia City Hall is the city hall of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It serves as the seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia, housing the chambers of the Philadelphia City Council and the offices of the Mayor of Philadelphia. It is also a courthouse, serving as the seat of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, and houses the Civil Trial and Orphans' Court Divisions of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County.
The colonial colleges are nine institutions of higher education chartered in the Thirteen Colonies before the United States of America became a sovereign nation after 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. Seven of the nine colonial colleges became seven of the eight Ivy League universities: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, and Dartmouth.
The Curse of Billy Penn (1987–2008) was a curse used to explain the failure of major professional sports teams based in Philadelphia to win championships since the March 1987 construction of the One Liberty Place skyscraper, which exceeded the height of William Penn's statue atop Philadelphia City Hall. For decades prior to the construction of One Liberty Place, there had been a "gentlemen's agreement” in place ensuring that no building in Philadelphia would be approved that rose above the William Penn statue on City Hall.
Overbrook Park is a neighborhood in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in the 1940s on the site of a former farm known as Supio's farm, offering new housing for returning GIs and their families. Overbrook Park remains a stable, safe, African-American middle-class neighborhood.
Penn's Landing is a waterfront area of Center City Philadelphia along the Delaware River. Its name commemorates the landing of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania in 1682. The actual landing site is further south in Chester, Pennsylvania. The city of Philadelphia purchased the right to use the name. Penn's Landing is bounded by Front Street to the west, the Delaware River to the east, Spring Garden Street to the north, and Washington Avenue to the south, and is primarily focused on the Christopher Columbus Boulevard corridor.
William Penn Charter School is an independent school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 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 & 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 (1628), Boston Latin School (1635), Hartford Public High School (1638), and Roxbury Latin (1645).
Bruce Eglinton Montgomery was an American composer, author, musical theater performer and painter; and a conductor and director, particularly of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas.
The "Holy Experiment" was an attempt by the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, to establish a community for themselves and other persecuted religious minorities in what would become the modern state of Pennsylvania. They hoped it would show to the world how well they could function on their own without any persecution or dissension.
Mont Clare is a village in Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The village is located on the left bank of the Schuylkill River, opposite Phoenixville and Chester County. Mont Clare is at the site of the former Jacobs' ford. Mont Clare hosts the only functional lock and one of only two remaining watered stretches of the Schuylkill Canal. Mont Clare was the birthplace of the infamous outlaw Sundance Kid.
The Independence Seaport Museum was founded in 1961 and is located in the Penn's Landing complex along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The collections at the Independence Seaport Museum document maritime history and culture along the Delaware River. At the museum are two National Historic Landmark ships and the J. Welles Henderson Archives and Library.
PennPraxis is the "clinical" arm of the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a 501c(3) non-profit subsidiary of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. The group offers community collaborative design opportunities for Penn faculty and students to test ideas and theories in practical "real world" applications while offering architectural and planning services to individuals and groups who are either in need or are otherwise unable to procure these services from traditional sources. In its first 10 years it earned $16m in fees.
William Penn was a writer, early member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the English North American colony the Province of Pennsylvania. He was an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans. Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was planned and developed. Philadelphia was planned out to be grid-like with its streets and be very easy to navigate, unlike London where Penn was from. The streets are named with numbers and tree names. He chose to use the names of trees for the cross streets because Pennsylvania means "Penn's Woods".
John Charles Haas was an American businessman and philanthropist, at one time considered the second richest man in Philadelphia. He was the chairman of global chemical company Rohm and Haas from 1974 to 1978. Under his leadership, the family's William Penn Foundation became a $2 billion grantmaking institution, ranking as one of the largest such institutions in the United States.
The Philadelphia Foundation is a community foundation that serves the Greater Philadelphia community. The five primary counties served are Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Chester County, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States, awarding more than $20 million in annual grants from more than 800 charitable funds.
Phoebe Waterman Haas was one of the earliest American women to be awarded a doctorate in Astronomy (1913). While her formal professional career ended upon her marriage, she contributed as a citizen scientist, volunteering for the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). The Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory was supported by donations from her family and is named in her honor.
