Historical Notes

Franklin Field, c. 1950. Photo by The Photo-Illustrators. Collections of the University of Pennsylvania Archives.

The Commencement for giving Degrees to the senior Class of Students in the College of this City ... is now fixed to be on Tuesday, the 17th Day of May next; which will be the first Commencement that has ever been had in this Seminary.

— Pennsylvania Gazette, 7 April 1757

The College of Philadelphia, awarded a charter in 1755 for the granting of degrees, was one of nine American colonial colleges. The annual Commencement program was held in the Hall of the original campus at Fourth and Arch Streets. In some years, the ceremonies began with a procession from the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall). The program itself was largely given over to the graduating students, whose ora-tions in Latin and English often extended through much of the day. The College's close ties to the Church of England and to the Penn family proprietors of the province were also evident in the prayers and sermons that were part of the program.

The College of Philadelphia, closed during the American Revolution, was recast as the University of the State of Pennsylvania. The

University, now a state school, renewed its Commencement traditions in 1780. The cer-emonies, attended by members of the Continental Congress and Pennsylvania Assembly, included the award of honorary degrees. Recipients during these years included Thomas Paine (1780), George Washington (1783), Charles Thomson (1784), and the Marquis de Lafayette (1787).

Early Commencements The Commencement of 1797 under-

scored the rapid rise of the Medical Department, which held its own Commence-ment in College Hall in May, and conferred degrees on fifteen candidates. Four students were from Pennsylvania, and several others were from Delaware, Virginia, and South Carolina. Two months later, the College con-ferred the Bachelor of Arts degree on three students, all of whom were Philadelphians, and no honorary degrees were awarded. Because of declining enrollment, the College had no graduating classes in 1798, 1801, 1806 and 1809. The Medical Department, later to become the School of Medicine, was flourish-ing. The number of graduates increased to twenty-four in 1805, and sixty-five in 1810.

In 1802, the College and Medical Department moved to a new campus: the "President's House," built by the Common-wealth of Pennsylvania for the United States President on Ninth Street, between Market and Chestnut Streets. For the next fifteen years, the Commencement processions marched through the city streets back to the old Hall of the University. In 1817, however, the Trustees broke with tradition and subse-quently took Commencement to four of Philadelphia's distinguished new showplaces. Washington Hall, one of the largest auditori-ums in the country, on Third Street, north of Spruce, was the first choice. Six classes had delivered their orations and received their degrees before a fire devastated Washington Hall in 1823. Commencement then moved to the Masonic Hall, on Chestnut Street, west of Eighth Street. Masonic Hall was the work of the nationally prominent Philadelphia archi-tect, William Strickland.

In the early 1830s, Commencements were held in one of the nation's most noted meeting places — the Hall of the Musical Fund Society, Eighth and Locust Streets. Distinguished guests and the awarding of honorary degrees played a much smaller role in Commencement during these years. The program was given over to the graduating class whose speeches, usually ten in number, were integrated with orchestral music. Even the traditional charge from the provost and the conferring of degrees gave way to the vale-dictorian of the College, whose address was the program's finale. As celebrations of stu-dent learning and accomplishment, the Commencements of the mid-19th century have no equal in University history.

The Trustees and Provost Charles J. Stille moved Commencement in 1868 to the Academy of Music. Four years later, they moved the entire University to West Phila-delphia. Commencement, formerly limited to graduates of the College and Medical Department, now reflected a proliferation of schools and academic degrees, as well as a dramatic increase in enrollment. By the end of the 1800s, the number of students in the College, for example, had increased five-fold, and the University graduated its first women and students of color. The Commencement procession, from 34th and Walnut Streets to the Academy at Broad and Locust, was a pub-lic spectacle of vast proportions. The students marched out of College Hall in tight forma-tion, carrying the University's flags and ban-

ners, while the Trustees, provost, and faculty followed behind, riding the twenty blocks in horse-drawn carriages.

Commencement One Hundred Years Ago One hundred years ago, the Commence-

ment of 1897 featured as guest speaker Wayne MacVeagh, a lawyer who had served as U.S. Attorney General in the administration of President Garfield and as U.S. ambassador to Italy in the administration of President Cleveland. In addition to MacVeagh, Penn granted honorary degrees to alumni Henry Morton (C'57), later professor of chemistry at Penn, and founding president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, and Benjamin West Frazier, Jr. (C'59), professor of mineralogy at Lehigh University. Morton and Frazier were among the nation's most celebrated theorists and practitioners of applied science.

Commencement was beginning to take on its contemporary form. Student orators no longer appeared on the program. The award of honorary degrees assumed renewed promi-nence. The provost delivered an introductory address and an honorary degree recipient deliv-ered the Commencement address. The Com-mencement ceremony of 1910 closely resem-bled the pomp and circumstance familiar today.

In 1912, Penn moved Commencement to its final location in center city — the Metro-politan Opera House at Broad and Poplar Streets. By 1922, however, the logistics of con-vening thousands of students, faculty, and spec-tators for Commencement in Philadelphia's grand public halls finally became too difficult. That year the Trustees moved the program to Weightman Hall field house and in 1927 to the new field house, the recently opened Palestra. In 1932, the need for a still larger facility took Commencement to Municipal Auditorium, better known as Convention Hall, where it remained for more than fifty years.

Commencement Fifty Years Ago In 1947, Commencement was held in

Convention Hall where a capacity audience of 14,000 witnessed the awarding of 1,350 degrees, diplomas, certificates, and commis-sions to graduates of all twelve schools of the University. The academic procession included six candidates for honorary degrees including Roger Adams, professor of organic chemistry at the University of Illinois, who delivered the Commencement address. The University also conferred honorary degrees on General

Dwight D. Eisenhower, chief of staff of the United States Army; Hon. James H. Duff, gov-ernor of Pennsylvania; Revelle W. Brown, president of the Reading Railroad; Lessing J. Rosenwald, philanthropist and former chair-man of Sears-Roebuck and Company; and Dr. Roland G. Kent, professor of Indo-European Linguistics at Penn. General Eisenhower, the last to receive his degree, delivered a few impromptu remarks, saying "On the battlefield, as everywhere, enthusiasm and strong self-confidence must always be present. They are needed now as never before. We can't face the future with blank despair and by stewing in pessimism." He said if every American citizen could tour the world and see the war-torn economies and the starving pop-ulations of other nations they "would come home determined to employ again those old fashioned words: patriot and patriotism. They would fall on their knees and thank God they live in America." The Commencement of 1947 was indeed a remarkable one.

Commencement Today Commencement remained in Conven-

tion Hall — with a few notable exceptions —until the move to Franklin Field in 1986. The original 20,000-seat stadium, which opened in 1895 with the first Penn Relays, now the world's oldest and largest track meet, was the most complete athletic facility of its day. Not large enough for the great era of collegiate football, the complex was enlarged in 1922 in time for the Penn-Navy game attended by President Harding. To accommodate the ever-growing crowds at Penn athletic events, Franklin Field was double-decked in 1925, bringing the total seating capacity to 78,205. Many other improvements have followed, most notably turf in 1969 and the recently-completed rehabilitation project of 1991-1996.

Commencement at Franklin Field repre-sents both Penn pride and Penn tradition. In honoring the 5,000 students who take the field today, the University signals its pride in the degree candidates of the Class of 1997 who take their place in the long line of Penn graduates that stretches back to the first Commencement of 1755. In bringing togeth-er thousands of students, faculty, families, and friends for Commencement, Penn pays its own homage to the centuries-old academ-ic tradition that marks the continuance of the noblest institution of all — the university.