Excerpt from 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 The history of our venerable University has never been written. During the 178 years since its origin its career has been full of a romance and usefulness that has touched every part of our country's progress. It has been more varied and distinguished, perhaps, than the history of any of our Colonial Colleges. To describe this in intimate detail would fill many volumes, but the story has been set down in this book in what is hoped will prove a convenient and readable form. Our University had its origin among a number of plain citizens of Philadelphia who organized themselves in 1740 to found and build a Charity School upon broad, catholic lines. The greatest of all Americans, Benjamin Franklin, put it into proper form and gave it being. In his plan for the school he urged useful things and he secured the active interest of the most useful, influential and trusted citizens to serve upon its Board of Trustees. So, as our motto indicates, character building has been the chief aim of the institution from its origin. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.