The Online Digital Image Collection is the Archives’ most heavily used online source for primary documents. Search the Online Digital Image Collection by topic for photographs, prints, paintings, drawings, and single-page manuscripts.
Other original documents from the collections of the University Archives are available online as listed below. Note that while additions are constantly being made to this expanding list of online primary sources, it will be many years before all of the vast numbers of documents in the University Archives will be viewable online. Researchers are welcome to visit the University Archives to view documents not found online.
Titles followed by an asterisk (*) are links to external sites providing free access to those resources.
Categories
Alumni
Athletics
College Barge Club of the University of Pennsylvania, Constitution and By-Laws, 1872
“Rowing at Pennsylvania,” from George W. Orton’s A History of Athletics at Pennsylvania
“Recollections of a Football Fan,” by Davidson Kennedy, 1930
Biographical Materials
A Description of Life at the Academy and College of Philadelphia, by Alexander Graydon, 1811
Eulogies at the Death of Student William Thomas Martin (Class of 1757), 1754
Nathan Francis Mossell, M.D. 1882, autobiography and Douglass Hospital history
Alice Paul, M.A. 1907, Ph.D. 1912, transcript record and suffragette stamp first day of issue ceremony program
Letter from George Bacon Wood to Horatio Curtis Wood, Jr., 1861
Class Records and Yearbooks
College Class of 1865
(documents relating to the Penn History exhibit on the College Class of 1865)College Class of 1875
(documents relating to the Penn History exhibit on the College Class of 1875)College Class of 1886 Cremation Hymns, November 1883
Selected Commencement Addresses, 1899-present
Commencement Notes, 1985-2013
Commencement Programs, selected, 1789-present
The Record, selected yearbooks from the College, 1863-1970
Women’s Yearbooks, selected yearbooks from the College for Women, 1912-1952
1919 Yearbooks
(documents relating to the Penn History exhibit on Penn and the 1918 Influenza Epidemic)Class Day Program, Class of 1891
Curriculum and Course Materials
18th Century Curriculum
(documents relating to the Penn History exhibit on Penn in the 18th Century)University Catalogues, 1825-1923
Notebooks from medical student Jonathan Elmer, 1763-1771*
Diversity
Diversity at the University of Pennsylvania
(documents relating to the Penn History exhibit A Timeline of Diversity at the University of Pennsylvania)Universidad de Pensilvania, University bulletin printed in Spanish for Latin American students, 1910
Histories of the University
Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania, by Francis Newton Thorpe, 1893*
Building America’s First University, by George E. Thomas and David Bruce Brownlee, 2000*
Early History of the University of Pennsylvania from Its Origin to the Year 1827, by George Bacon Wood and Frederick Dawson Stone, 1896*
“The Early Years: The Charity School, Academy and College of Philadelphia,” Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, 1972
A History of the University of Pennsylvania: From Its Foundation to A. D. 1770, by Thomas Harrison Montgomery, 1900*
Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania, by Benjamin Franklin, 1749
“The University of Pennsylvania” by Francis Newton Thorpe, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, July 1895
The University of Pennsylvania, Franklin’s College: Being Some Account of Its Beginnings and Development, Its Customs and Traditions and Its Gifts to the Nation, by Horace Mather Lippincott, 1919*
University of Pennsylvania: Its History, Traditions, Buildings and Memorials, by George E. Nitzsche, 1918*
A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania: From Its Foundation in 1765, by Joseph Carson, 1869*
“Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania,” by the Medical Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, 1841
Institutional Documents
Annual Financial Reports, 1976-present
Financial Records and Tuition Account/Roll Books, 18th Century
Institutional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania
(documents relating to the Penn History exhibit on the History of Institutional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania)Provost Reports, 1882-1907
Trustees Minutes, 1749-1811, 1822-1831, and 1969-present
University Catalogues, 1825-1923
International
Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania
(documents relating to the Penn History exhibit on A Brief History of Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania)Kwame Nkrumah at Penn
(documents relating to the Penn History exhibit on Kwame Nkrumah at Penn)
Memorabilia
Alice Paul Suffragette Stamp, First Day of Issue ceremony program, 1995
Photographs and Video
Publications by the University and its Students
The Pennsylvania Gazette, selected issues, 1902-1992
University Magazine, 1875-1885
Speeches and Debates
“Eulogium on Benjamin Franklin, L.L.D.,” by William Smith, 1792*
“Addresses Delivered at the Opening of the Graduate Department for Women,” 1892
“Improvements of the Age,” 1851 Commencement Speech
Student Organizations
“The Houston Club,” booklet, 1896
Philomathean Society
(documents relating to the Penn History exhibit on the Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania)Zelosophic Society
(documents relating to the Zelosophic Society of the University of Pennsylvania Records)