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Did you know that the University of Pennsylvania is actually the oldest university in the United States? And did you know that the reasoning behind that status doesn’t actually have to do with the school’s founding date?
“Penn became the first university in America based on the definition of what a university is,” said J.M. Duffin, assistant university archivist at Penn.
Benjamin Franklin founded Penn in 1749. That date is over a century later than Harvard’s founding in 1636.
“We are the first university because in 1765 we created a medical school,” Duffin explained. “By the modern definition of what a university is, it is a school that has two faculties. So there’s a faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences and a faculty of the School of Medicine.”
Because Penn was the first to have “two schools under one roof,” Duffin said, they gained the status of first university. What’s more, in 1779 the state of Pennsylvania rechartered the school and named it the “University of the State of Pennsylvania” — making it the first school to actually be called a university.
“We have it on those two different levels,” Duffin noted.
And that’s not the only time Penn has used semantics to its advantage to say it’s older than another Ivy League.
“Our biggest beef at Penn, at least traditionally, has been with Princeton,” Duffin said.
Apparently, even though Penn was founded in 1749, the school managed to change its birthday on a technicality.
“We, the university and the trustees of the university in the 1890s, changed our founding date from 1749 to 1740 in order to make us older than Princeton,” Duffin said.
Is that allowed? According to Duffin, the answer is yes.
“They came up with a very legalized reasoning behind it,” Duffin said, explaining how the school bought a church on its campus that was built in 1740.
“What the trustees decided in the 1890s is that our school is as old as our oldest part,” Duffin explained. “Because we bought this building that was built in 1740, and there was an intention to have a school with that building, 1740 is our founding date, and that just happens to make us a few years older than Princeton.”
‘Innovation is in the DNA’
To honor Penn’s status as the United States’ first university, the city is throwing a “Firstival” celebration as part of its ongoing 52 Weeks of Firsts on Saturday. When Benjamin Franklin founded Penn, he had a progressive vision.
“He wanted Philadelphia to have a school that taught higher education, but on a more practical side, with a heavy emphasis on English and applied learning and things like mathematics, modern languages, as opposed to just Latin and Greek, and also surveying and history, and also commerce,” Duffin said.
To recognize this vision, local artist Anh Ly has painted a No. 1 sculpture honoring Penn’s history.
“Innovation is in the DNA (at Penn),” Ly explained. “We’re looking at what would communicate innovation from UPenn.”
Her sculpture pays homage to Franklin, with an image of the founder father holding a key and a kite. Books appear as foundational bricks that “build up the education from past to present.” Penn’s motto “leges sine moribus vanae” or “laws without morals are useless” in the school colors wraps around the sides of the sculpture.
“Unlike all the other colleges that were in America at that time, Penn was not tied to a particular religion,” Duffin said. “What made that very interesting is that from the very start, the school had people from different religious backgrounds teaching at the school and also attending the school. So it had a form of diversity for the 18th century, which was unusual by modern standards.”
People of European, African and indigenous descent were on Penn’s campus, he said.
“A lot of that is thanks to the Quakers who created this as a religiously tolerant colony,” Duffin said. “And as a result, it meant that the school had to work with a lot of different communities.”
Ly is originally from Vietnam. She said that her friends back home have been excited about her Firstival sculpture.
“When I was in Vietnam, a lot of my friends tried to get into UPenn,” she explained. “It’s kind of like the pinnacle of education for us. Now, I’m an immigrant, I live here … I have friends who study and work at UPenn.”
She called the school’s impact “far-reaching,” and said she hopes that anyone who comes to the Firstival party this Saturday will learn more about Penn’s history.
“I think it’s easy to take our education for granted,” she said. “It’s easy to take history for granted. Whatever we have right now, it comes from somewhere … Especially when it comes to education, I think it’s good to look at all of the people before us, the institution before us, (who) put down the bricks and stones so that we can learn, and be who we are today.”
Those interested can attend this week’s Firstival on Saturday, Nov. 14 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Houston Hall from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. You can also see our full list of this year’s Firstivals below, including the upcoming dates and locations.
Completed
Week 1: Successful balloon flight in America (1793)
Week 2: The Mummers parade, the nation’s first folk parade (1901)
Week 3: Volunteer fire company (1736)
Week 4: Professional basketball league (1898)
Week 5: Public Girl Scout cookie sale (1932)
Week 6: African Methodist Episcopal congregation (1794)
Week 7: Abolitionist society in America (1775)
Week 8: Authentic Chinese gate built in America (1984)
Week 9: Public protest against slavery in America (1688)
Week 10: Flower Show (1829)
Week 11: Women’s medical college (1850)Week 12: Matchbook (1892)
Week 13: Medical school (1765)
Week 14: Stadium (1895)
Week 15: Circus performance (1793)
Week 16: Botanical garden (1728)
Week 17: Postmaster (1737)
Week 18: American-made piano and sousaphone (1775 and 1893)
Week 19: Mother’s Day (1908)
Week 20: Hospital in America (1751)
Week 21: World’s Fair on American soil (1876)
Week 22: Steamboat for passengers and freight (1787)
Week 23: American flag (1777)
Week 24: U.S. Army (1775)
Week 25: Annual Reminder demonstration (1965)
Week 26: Paper maker in America (1690)
Week 27: Bank of the United States (1791)
Week 28: Organized baseball team (1831)
Week 29: Ice cream soda (Oct. 1874)
Week 30: American art school (1805)
Week 31: Scientific Society of Natural History (1812)
Week 31: Zoo in America (1874)
Week 32: U.S. Mint (1793)
Week 33: Selfie (1839)
Week 34: Slinky (1943)
Week 35: Signing of the Constitution (1787)
Week 36: Continental Congress (1774)
Week 37: Naming of the United States (1776)
Week 38: Ronald McDonald House (1974)
Week 39: Penitentiary in America (1829)
Week 40: First peoples
Week 41: U.S. Navy and Marine Corps (1775)
Week 42: Public showing of a motion picture (1870)
Week 43: Modern detective story written (1841)
Week 44: Thanksgiving Day parade in America (1920)
Upcoming
• University in America (1740)
Nov. 14, Houston Hall, The University of Pennsylvania, 3417 Spruce St.
• Children’s hospital in America (1855)
Nov. 21, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Main Building, 3401 Civic Center Blvd.
• Pencil with an attached eraser (1858)
Nov. 28, National Liberty Museum, 321 Chestnut St.
• Weather bureau (1870)
Dec. 5, The Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th St.
• Electronic computer (1945)
Dec. 12, The University of Pennsylvania, 3451 Walnut St.
• Public lending library in America (1731)
Dec. 19, The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust St.
• Philly food firsts: Cheesesteaks (1930s), water ice (1932) and bubble gum (1928)
Dec. 26, Reading Terminal Market, 1136 Arch St.
