Join exhibition co-curators John Pollack and Jim Duffin for a special tour of Revolution at Penn? 

Penn was at the center of early Philadelphia, long before the Ivy League and the ivory tower. Born out of the innovative and lofty ideals of Benjamin Franklin and leading Philadelphians, Penn could not escape the fractious political world of 18th century Pennsylvania. 

Revolution at Penn? examines conflicts around the formation, structure, and mission of the university in the era of the American Revolution: from debates about its mission in the 1750s and 1760s, to a devastating schism that tore the school apart in 1779, to eventual compromise and reorganization as the University of Pennsylvania in 1791. Political pamphlets, broadsides, maps, prints, manuscripts, and a full-scale replica of a colonial coffee house evoke the contentious era and provoke new questions about the place of universities in America, then and now. 

Revolution at Penn? is organized by the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts and features the collections of the University Archives and the Kislak Center.