The institution now known as the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

was founded as a secondary school in 1740 and by the time of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

had grown to include a college and medical school called the

College of Philadelphia The Academy and College of Philadelphia (1749-1791) was a boys' school and men's college in Philadelphia, Colony of Pennsylvania. Founded in 1749 by a group of local notables that included Benjamin Franklin, the Academy of Philadelphia began as ...

. While it operated under a state charter, it was a private institution with its own board of trustees. Many were

Loyalists Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...

, and when the revolutionary government of Pennsylvania regained control of the city of Philadelphia after the British occupation of 1777-8, it rechartered the institution as the "University of the State of Pennsylvania," appointed new trustees, and dismissed Provost William Smith. Following repeated lawsuits by Smith and the original trustees, the state restored the college's charter in 1789, but the university continued to operate on the original campus. The two competing institutions merged in 1791, forming the

References

Penn in the 18th Century
- at Penn's archives

at ''"The University of Pennsylvania"'' by Francis N. Thorpe

University of Pennsylvania, State of Pennsylvania Defunct universities and colleges in Philadelphia 1779 establishments in Pennsylvania Educational institutions established in 1779 {{Pennsylvania-university-stub