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HISTORICAL NOTES (CONTINUED)250 years ago: Samuel Powel (1739-1793) was one of the studentswho graduated at the Commencement of 1759. He later became one ofPhiladelphia’s leading citizens, twiceserving as the City’s mayor and twiceas a Trustee of the Universityof Pennsylvania. SamuelPowel remains well knownin Philadelphia today forthe elegant townhousehe owned at 244 SouthThird Street, which hasbeen preserved and isopen to the public, and asthe founder of PoweltonVillage, located justnorth of the Universityof Pennsylvania in WestPhiladelphia. Oval portraitattributed to AngelicaKauffmann.Courtesy of the University ArtCollection, University of Pennsylvania.Penn was following what it believed to be the best of Old Worldtraditions, borrowed from Oxford and Cambridge and adapted to thecircumstances of American higher education. Commencement wasthe day for celebrating the graduates’ learned achievements and thestudent “orations” and “disputations” commanded no less than a fourhour program. It was also an occasion for recognizing and honoringthe accomplishments of those who had led lives of successful endeavor.The awarding of honorary degrees fulfilled that purpose. Finally, itwas a time for reflection upon and commitment to fundamental valuesin life. The closing address, delivered by the highest ranking officerof the institution, sought to convey to the graduates the significanceof their collective future. The academic robes, the formal procession,the prayers, the grandeur of the building and the audience – all helpedserve to inspire the participants. Commencement was meant to be oneof the most memorable events in one’s life.ONE HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS AGOThe Commencements of 1859Adjourned Special MeetingMarch 17th, 1859, 11½ o’clock A.M.The academic year which concluded in the Commencement of 1759was just the tenth in Penn’s history, but it was surely as astonishingand extraordinary as any year in the 250 since then. The Provost wasthe Rev. William Smith, a priest in the Church of England, but also aregular and strident writer of political essays. In the fall of 1757 he hadprinted a particularly harsh attack on the Pennsylvania state legislature.The legislature, finding him guilty “of promoting and publishing afalse, scandalous, virulent and seditious libel against the late House ofAssembly of this Province,” ordered him imprisoned. Penn’s Trustees,however, took Provost Smith’s side in the controversy and in February1758 directed the undergraduate students to attend Smith’s classes“at the usual Hours in the Place of his present Confinement,” that is,in the county jail! The standoff continued for two months before thelegislature adjourned and the Provost was released. In November,however, when the Assembly re-convened, calls again were madefor Smith’s arrest. This time the Provost asked the Trustees fortheir permission to sail to England with an appeal to the King. TheTrustees granted him that permission and in early December Smith leftPhiladelphia.Provost Smith taught the senior class and the Trustees, anxious tohold Commencement in June, scrambled to find a substitute teacher.It gave them great pleasure when they found a suitable candidate atPrinceton and were able to recruit him in the middle of the academicyear. The new member of the Penn faculty was Rev. John Ewing, aminister in the Presbyterian church and learned in both the liberal artsand the natural sciences. Rev. Ewing took hold of his responsibilitiesimmediately; the undergraduate calendar remained on schedule. Sevenstudents passed their examinations and formed the Class of 1759.The crisis eased (and Smith was successful in his appeal: he returnedto Philadelphia in October with an exoneration from the King’s PrivyCouncil and an honorary doctorate from Oxford!).The Trustees’ minutes of the Commencement of 1759 provideone of the best accounts of an early commencement on record.The descriptive detail given to every step of the process – fromthe “public Examination” of the College seniors, to the grant ofauthority conferring the degrees, to the conduct of the graduationceremony itself – testifies to the importance of the proceedings.The Board met, pursuant to adjournment at the last meeting,to attend the Medical Commencement, and proceeded tothe Musical Fund Hall, where, after prayer by the Rev.Dr. Schaeffer, the degree of Doctor of Medicine was, withthe usual ceremonies, conferred by the Provost upon thefollowing gentlemen, who had been recommended for thedegree by the Medical Faculty.[The minutes then list the names of the 140 graduates, withthe states of their respective residences, and the titles of theirrespective graduating essays.]An address was then delivered to the graduating Class byProfessor Smith.AdjournedMinutes of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania17 March 1859150 years ago: MusicalFund Hall, where theUniversity held both itsCommencements of 1859,still stands at the southwestcorner of Eighth and LocustStreets. It is associated withmany world-renowned 19thcentury musicians, but mostfamous for hosting, in 1856,the first national conventionof the Republican Party.This photograph of thefront of the Hall, takensometime in late 19thcentury, shows the buildingas it appeared after its 1847remodeling.Photograph from thepublication Centenary,Musical Fund Society ofPhiladelphia, 1820 – 1920.7

HISTORICAL NOTES (CONTINUED)150 years ago: HenryHollingsworth Smith (18151890), speaker at the MedicalCommencement of 1859, wasProfessor of Surgery in the Schoolof Medicine from 1855 until1871. He was later President ofthe Philadelphia County MedicalSociety and President of the MedicalSociety of the State of Pennsylvania,as well as Chairman of the SurgicalSection of the American MedicalAssociation. Portrait photograph,photographer unknown.Collections of the University Archivesand Records Center, University ofPennsylvania.UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENTThe Commencement of the Medical Department of theUniversity of Pennsylvania took place at the Musical FundHall at noon yesterday. The hall was packed full in everypart and it was found necessary to close the doors some timebefore the commencement of the exercises. A great numberof persons were unable to obtain admission to the building.The graduates, headed by the officers and faculty, walkedin procession from the University to the hall. The exerciseswere opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr. Schaeffer, afterwhich the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred uponthe graduates by Henry Vethake, LL.D., Provost of theUniversity.Henry H. Smith, M.D., Professor of Surgery, delivered thevaledictory. He gave a sketch of the duties of the physician tothe public, and spoke of the high tone which every honorablemedical man should maintain; alluded to the position ofsociety to a physician; to the fact that the physician andphilanthropist must not expect great rewards, but must beactuated by nobler motives; of the evils of quackery; andclosed as follows:“When, in after life, temptations assail you; when evilinfluences beset and assail your fair fame, may you recallthe fact, to-day presented to you in words of kindly interest,that you are members of a noble profession, attached to asociety of honorable men, and that, as such, honor forbidsyour yielding to the temptations of the enemy, and baselydeserting the flag under which you are now enrolled. Wishingyou every happiness, I, in the name of my colleagues, tenderyou our farewell.”Philadelphia Press18 March 1859Penn’s Trustees established the School of Medicine in 1765 andit soon proved to be a profound innovation in American highereducation. By 1800 the School of Medicine had grown larger than theCollege and by 1830 it was generally acknowledged as the premierAmerican institution of medical education. In the 1858-59 academicyear there were 409 students in the School of Medicine, representingtwenty-three states, the District of Columbia, and six foreign countries.The School’s faculty had its own buildings on campus and conductedits internal affairs largely independent of the Provost and the Trustees8of the University. Through most of the 19th century the uniquestatus of the School was well illustrated by its academic calendar –considerably shorter than that of the College – and its stand-aloneannual commencement.The School of Medicine conducted its commencements in a mannermore familiar to us today than did the College. The ceremony’semphasis was not so much the academic attainments of the students –though the conferring of the M.D. degree certainly acknowledged thatachievement. The emphasis was rather on the commencement speakerand the significance of his address for the newly-credentialed graduates.In 1859 Henry Hollingsworth Smith was in just his fifth year on Penn’sfaculty, but he was well known as a surgeon of unusual ability; a prolificscholarly author; and a powerful public speaker. Those qualities ledhis medical faculty colleagues to select him as their representative atcommencement. The Philadelphia newspapers celebrated his addressand called for its publication. His leadership in the medical professionwas perhaps best demonstrated two years later, when, at the outbreakof the Civil War, the Federal government chose him to organize thehospital system of Pennsylvania and the state appointed him SurgeonGeneral of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Smith was the verymodel of the modern commencement speaker.Adjourned MeetingJuly 1, 1859, 9¾ [o’clock] A.M.The Board met pursuant to adjournment to attend theCommencement and proceeded to the Musical FundHall, where the following degrees were, with appropriateceremonies, conferred by the Provost, after prayer by the Rev.C.W. Schaeffer and Orations by Members of the graduatingClass.[The minutes then list the names of thirty graduates of theCollege, the twelve graduates of the Law School, four lategraduates of the School of Medicine, and the twenty-fiverecipients of the semi-honorary degree of Master of Arts.]The Provost announced the names of the gentlemen to whomthe Henry Reed and other Prizes had been awarded and theexercises were concluded by a Valedictory Oration from amember of the Graduating Class.AdjournedMinutes of the Trustees of the University of PennsylvaniaFriday, 1 July 1859150 years ago: Edward BlanchardHodge (1841-1906) delivered the Greeksalutatory at the University Commencementof 1859. Following his graduation fromthe College at Penn, he enrolled in thePrinceton Theological Seminary, fromwhich he graduated in 1863. He wasordained a Presbyterian clergyman, servedfor thirty years as pastor of the PresbyterianChurch of Burlington, New Jersey, and in1893 was named Secretary of the nationalPresbyterian Board of Education. He heldthat position until his death. Photographtaken from the publication University ofPennsylvania (Illustrated).Collections of the University Archives and Records Center, University ofPennsylvania.

HISTORICAL NOTES (CONTINUED)Commencement of the University of PennsylvaniaThe annual commencement of the University of Pennsylvaniawas held yesterday morning, at the Musical Fund Hall,in the presence of a large assemblage. At ten o’clock theprocession, composed of the Professors and GraduatingClass, entered the Hall, the Germania Orchestra performingmeanwhile, one of their choice selections. Though, accordingto the programme, the Orchestra was to perform pieces atdifferent periods of the exercises, there was no music after theintroductory, owing to the serious illness of the Hon. RichardRush, residing in the neighborhood. The opening prayer wasfollowed by the Salutatory Oration in the Greek, by EdwardB. Hodge. This was succeeded by addresses on the subjectnamed “Eldorado,” by Edward P. Capp; “The Battle ofTours,” by Richard A. Coleman; “Historic Rivers,” by JamesB. Roney; “The Balance of Power,” by William McMichael;“Our National Literature,” by Ludovic C. Cleemann; and“Historical Effects of Eloquence,” by Charles E. Buckwalter.The speakers acquitted themselves creditably and were muchapplauded. Bouquets were thrown to some of them by theirenthusiastic admirers.FIFTY YEARS AGO:The Commencements of 1959The degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred on the followingmembers of the Senior Class by [Provost Henry] Vethake:-- [here followed the thirty names of the graduates of theCollege]The degree of Master of Arts was conferred on the followinggraduates of three years standing: -- [here followed thetwenty-five names of the recipients of this semi-honorarydegree]The degree of Bachelor of Laws was conferred on [herefollowed the twelve names of the graduates of the Law School]The degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred on [herefollowed four names of late graduates of the School ofMedicine]The valedictory address was delivered by J.H. Young, whichclosed the exercises.On the stage was a fine portrait of Professor Vethake, paintedby [Thomas] Sully, which is to be placed in the CollegeHall in commemoration of his services to the institution,with which he has been connected since 1836. He recentlytendered his resignation, to take effect yesterday.Public LedgerSaturday, 2 July 1859The most striking feature of the University Commencement of 1859was its adherence to tradition. The ceremony of July 1859 wasvirtually indistinguishable from that of a century earlier. The publicprocession in academic garb, the entrance into a grand auditorium,the accompanying music, the initial student address in Greek,the six student addresses in English, the conferring of degrees,and the valedictory were all borrowed directly from Penn’s firstcommencements. Likewise, t

follow'd by the Masters and Tutors of the several Schools at the Head of the junior Classes and the Scholars, who walked in Procession, two by two; and having respectively taken their Seats, the Commencement was open'd by Prayer, performed after the Rites of the Church of England by the Reverend Mr. Peters, President [of the Trustees]. The honorable the Governor, several Officers of the .