Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania

Benjamin Franklin is the type of the self-educated man. His philosophy is utilitarian, and his educational notions are stamped by that system. He would define morality, politics, and natural philosophy by a series of experiments in which every member of the human race should. participate. His scheme of education provides that all men should follow his example. The influence of Franklin on American education is felt to this day. I have attempted to outline this influence by tracing his own self-education; by presenting his ideas on education as shown in his works; by comparing them with the ideas of the eminent men of his time, Adam Smith, Hume, Priestly, Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, and some of the physiocrats; by describ ing the educational institutions which he founded-the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, and the University of Pennsylvania-and the principal educational institutions founded in Pennsylvania in conformity with his ideas-Franklin and Marshall College, the Franklin Institute, Girard College, and the Philadelphia Manual Training Schools. These institutions touch life at every point and represent every important phase of modern education. This volume is designed to show more particularly Franklin's relations to the University of Pennsylvania, and the history and growth of that institution for a century and a half. Lack of space has prevented a more elaborate account of that relation and of that history. Perhaps no part of the volume is more suggestive than the tables showing the attendance at the University since 1740. It has been attended by persons from one hundred and thirteen States and countries, and the number of annual courses given amount to 66,747. Its alumni are found all over the world. Particularly has the University been of interest to the people of the Southern States who have been, with a slight interruption, its constant patrons. The tables show how in recent years the awakened interest in university life brings matriculates from all parts of the world. The University has thus become the permanent exposition of Franklin's ideas in education, and his name and that of the University are imperishably linked together. He was the first president of the Board of Trustees and was an active member of the Board for nearly half a century. The brief account of Franklin's influence on Adam Smith, on Priestly, and on Hume, and of the educational

ideas held by Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Hamilton, will suggest to others, I trust, interesting fields of exploration in American educational history.

"The great aim and end of all learning" wrote Franklin in 1749, in his "Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania," "is to serve mankind, one's country, friends and family.”

On this broad conception Franklin and his associates founded the University of Pennsylvania. At the close of nearly a century and a half after that conception was formulated, the University of Pennsylvania is organized and administered, its numerous courses of study ar-' ranged and its academic life proceeds in substantial conformity with the great aim and end which Franklin proposed. The plan of the founder and his associates comprehended the significant educational movements of modern times and at the same time set forth the classic excellence of conservatism. Language, literature, science pure and applied, ethics, history, government and constitutions, "sound politics," logic, the history of commerce, archæology, law, anatomy, and medicine, the ever-increasing group of studies which "are useful to mankind" distinguish the University of Pennsylvania to-day and enhance the fame of its founder. That group of historical, economic and political studies which includes so large a portion of modern instruction was clearly outlined in the original plan for the University of Pennsylvania, and this institution was the first to organize several special schools whose instruction is particularly useful in such a country as ours.

The unwearied labors of unselfish men, provosts, trustees, and professors, aided by generous friends, for a century and a half have centered in the University of Pennsylvania; but it is during the last twenty years and more particularly during the last decade that the truly university plan of the founder, enlarged by the experience of many attempts towards its realization, has taken concrete form. The recent growth of the University has been phenomenal. It is doubtful if any other institution of learning in America shows such a vigorous growth of parts and such efficient unification of the whole.

A magnificent estate of over 40 acres has been secured on the highlands of Philadelphia overlooking the valley of the Schuylkill, twenty buildings for a great variety of purposes have been erected at a cost of $1,500,000, and the scope of the University has been enlarged by the foundation of numerous special or technical schools, such as Wharton School of Finance and Economy, the School of Biology, the Veterinary School, the School of American History and Institutions, the School of Hygiene, the School of Architecture, the Graduate School for Women, and the Wistar Institute of Anatomy.

These creations illustrate forcibly the living touch of the University with the world, and these schools are administered to the advantage

1 See p. 58 et seq.

of an ever increasing body of students from all parts of the world. In 1881 there were 972 students in attendance; there are 2,055 in 1892. The teaching force of the University has increased till it bears a greater ratio to the number of students receiving instruction than exists in any other university in America.

The services of Benjamin Franklin to his countrymen are the admiration of the world; but no service done by this American statesman surpasses the service of the great University which he and his associates founded.

Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the University of Virginia, with intimate knowledge of the relative worth of American and European institutions of learning, in 1807, while President of the United States, wrote to Dr. Caspar Wistar, then professor of anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania:

I have a grandson, the son of Mr. Randolph, now about 15 years of age, in whose education I take a lively interest; there are particular branches of science which are not so advantageously taught anywhere else in the United States as in Philadelphia, your Medical School for anatomy, and the able professors

give advantages not to be found elsewhere.

It is of great interest to be able to record that eighty-five years later the name of the distinguished anatomist and teacher, Dr. Wistar, is forever associated with the University of Pennsylvania by the generosity of Gen. Isaac J.Wistar, in the foundation and endowment of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy.

To-day, the Medical School with its learned faculties and its four years' course; the Towne Scientific School, with its admirably equipped laboratories; the Biological and Veterinary Schools; and the School of Hygiene; the University Hospital and the Dental School, each adequately equipped with commodious buildings, suggest that were President Jefferson living he might again speak of "advantages" at the University of Pennsylvania, "not to be found elsewhere."

Nor has it been in science alone that the facilities of the University have increased; the entire group of political, historical and economic studies is emphasized in the clearest manner and the several schools organized in that group, like the scientific schools in the University, give special strength to the whole educational unit of the University.

It is the unification of the University and the enormous financial strengthening which it has received during the last ten years that distinguish the administration of the present Provost, Dr. William Pepper, whose wife and children are descendants of Benjamin Franklin and who by a happy destiny has been enabled to give concrete form and living power to the comprehensive plans of the University's great founder. Nor should history be silent concerning the wise generosity of the Board of Trustees, some of whose members have been the guaranty of the material success of many large undertakings in the University.

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Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania, Volume 892