Pennsylvania, University of,

private university located in Philadelphia, founded in 1740 as a charity school. Largely through the efforts of Benjamin Franklin and other leading Philadelphians, it became an academy in 1753, with Franklin as president of the first board of trustees. Two years later it was chartered as the College and Academy of Philadelphia. With the foundation in 1765 of the first medical school in North America, the institution became in fact a university, but it was not so called until 1779, when for a time it received state support. Since 1791 it has been a privately endowed and controlled institution, although it continues to receive state aid.

University institutes include the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology (the first anatomical institute in America devoted entirely to research, 1892) and the Henry Phipps Institute of Genetics and Community Diseases (1910). The University Museum (archaeology and ethnology) is a teaching and research organization.

Last updated: 1 October, 1996

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Quid prodest hoc ad aeternitatem
Professor Eiichi Hishikawa
Faculty of Letters, Kobe University