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Guided tour of the web site: |
| 1740 - Trust formed to establish a Charity School in Philadelphia at Fourth
and Arch Streets |
| 1749 - Franklin publishes his Proposals
and organizes the Academy of Philadelphia |
| 1750 - The Trustees of the Academy buy the building of the proposed Charity
School and formalize the institutional
structure of the Academy and Charitable School |
| 1751 - The Academy and Charity School opens
in the reconstructed New Building |
| 1751 - The Academy enjoys a flourishing enrollment
from the time of its first years |
| 1753 - William
Smith publishes his College
of Mirania in New York. Franklin invites him to Philadelphia to visit
the Academy and meet with the Trustees. Smith responds
with interest in the opportunities offered by the Academy |
| 1754 - Trustees
hire William Smith as Provost. Smith is ordained as a priest in the Church
of England. Smith immediately re-organizes the curriculum of the Academy
|
| 1755 - College of Philadelphia is chartered with Reverend William Smith at its
head; Smith forces Franklin from the presidency of the Trustees, but Franklin
remains a member of the board |
| 1757 - First
college class graduated |
| 1756-63 - During the Seven Years War, Smith publishes partisan religious
and political
pamphlets on public policy issues |
| 1762 - Smith conducts a capital campaign in England with assistance from the
Penn family proprietors of Pennsylvania and the Church of England |
| 1764 - Trustees agreed to accept the proceeds of Smith's fundraising on condition
that a majority of the Board always be members of the Church of England |
| 1765 - Penn establishes the first School of Medicine in British North America.
Medical faculty issue class
tickets for admission to their well attended lectures |
| 1766-75 - Penn's annual commencements are great celebrations of the learning acquired
by the graduating students |
| 1775 - Continental Congress meet in College Hall |
| 1777 - Penn
closed on account of the Revolutionary War |
| 1779 - Revolutionary government of Pennsylvania declares Penn's colonial charter
unlawful and substitute a new charter, new Board of Trustees, a new Provost and a new
name -- University
of the State of Pennsylvania -- in its place. Reverend William Ewing, a Presbyterian
clergyman, is named the new Provost |
| 1784 - While Franklin is
in Paris, King Louis XVI donates books to the University Library |
| 1785 - Franklin returns to Philadelphia and is elected President
of the Trustees of the University of the State of Pennsylvania |
| 1789 - The Pennsylvania legislature reinstates the College of Philadelphia, with
its former Trustees and former Provost. Philadelphia now has two institutions
of higher education |
| 1790 - Franklin dies and is eulogized by the College
of Philadelphia and the American
Philosophical Society |
| 1790 - Trustees of the College elect James
Wilson the first Professor of Law |
| 1791 - By an act of the state legislature, the University of the State of Pennsylvania
and the College of Philadelphia are united in the University of Pennsylvania.
Ewing is retained as Provost despite an extended protest by Smith |
