OB欧宝体育的历史
潘 dates its founding to 1740, when a plan emerged to build a 费城 charity school that would double as a house of worship. After construction was underway, 然而, cost was seen to be much greater than the available resources，以及 project went unfinished for a decade.
第四街校区, College of 费城: Academy/College Building and Dormitory/Charity School, 1918年素描
富兰克林的愿景
In 1749, 本杰明•富兰克林—printer, inventor, and future founding father of the United States—published his famous essay, “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth,” circulated it among 费城’s leading citizens, and organized 24 trustees to form an institution of higher education based on his proposals. The group purchased the building and in 1751, opened its doors to children of the gentry and working class alike as the Academy and Charitable School in the Province of 潘sylvania. Franklin served as president of the institution until 1755 and continued to serve as a trustee until his death in 1790.
富兰克林的教育目标, to train young people for leadership in business, 政府, 还有公共服务, 在当时是创新的吗. 在18世纪50年代, other Colonial American colleges educated young men for the Christian ministry, but Franklin’s proposed program of study was much more like the modern liberal arts curriculum. His fellow trustees were unwilling to implement most of his then-radical ideas though, OB欧宝体育的第一任教务长, 威廉。史密斯, turned the curriculum back to traditional channels soon after taking the helm from Franklin.
In addition to challenging the educational conventions of the day, Franklin pushed boundaries that moved science and society forward and helped shape America’s very nationhood. He was a member of the Second Continental Congress, a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. 宪法, and played a pivotal role in recruiting French aid for the Americans during the Revolutionary War. Franklin later signed the Treaty of Paris, officially ending the conflict with the British Empire.
His broad knowledge spanned multiple disciplines, and far from regarding it as an end in itself, he saw knowledge as an asset that required practical application to be of value. His many essential inventions range from bifocals and the lightning rod to the iron furnace stove and odometer.
除此之外, civic institutions that Franklin helped launch include the country’s first subscription library (1731) 和第一 hospital (1751), in addition to what would become America’s first university, OB欧宝体育, in 1749.
在接下来的几年里, 潘 went on to obtain a collegiate charter (1755), graduate its first class (1757), establish the first medical school in the American colonies (1765) and become the first American institution of higher education to be named a university (1779). In 1802, University expanded to another campus, but by the 1860s had outgrown even that space, so in 1872 the trustees built a new campus in the street-car suburb of West 费城.
富兰克林的影响 & 现代大学
直到今天, 潘’s 299-acre West 费城 campus reflects its rich heritage—a heritage closely bound with the birth of the United States—boasting more than 180 buildings and many notable landmarks, 包括 全国第一个学生会 和第一 double-decker college football stadium.
The 190 research centers and institutes on campus also reflect the University’s innovative, 有公德心的, and pragmatic creator: More than 250 years after Ben Franklin broke new ground in founding 潘, 她的老师, 学生, and alumni continue to make breakthroughs in research, 奖学金, 和教育. Its many subsequent “firsts” include the world’s first collegiate business school (沃顿商学院, 1881); the world’s first electronic, large-scale, general-purpose digital computer (ENIAC, 1946); and the first woman president of an Ivy League institution (朱迪斯·罗丹，于1994年落成). Rodin was succeeded by Amy Gutmann, inaugurated in 2004，以及n M. Elizabeth "Liz" Magill, inaugurated in 2022
From campus walkways engraved with Franklin’s words of wisdom to the University’s most important strategic initiatives such as the 潘 Integrates Knowledge Professorships, 总统参与奖，以及 总统创新奖, 潘 continues to educate and inspire future leaders to move our now-global society forward.
Additional information on 潘’s heritage is available at 大学档案馆 & 档案中心.
