University of Pennsylvania. Dept. of History

The University Catalogue for 1893 is the first which described a Department of History as an administrative unit in the College. John Bach McMaster was the first Chairman of the Department. A faculty consisting of four professors and one instructor taught courses in American History, American Constitutional History, Economic and Financial History of the United States, Political History of the United States since the Civil War, European History, Renaissance and Reformation, Medieval History, and Roman History. The same faculty also taught advanced history courses in the Department of Philosophy, the forerunner of the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to major courses, a course in Church History was offered to graduate students taking history as a minor. The faculty awarded Penn's first Ph.D. in History in 1891. The faculty first appeared as a departmental administrative unit in the Department of Philosopy in 1897.

The range of interest of the History faculty has enormously expanded in the past two centuries as seen in the course offered by the Department. In the early years, history teaching was confined to American and English history. Gradually, the discipline was broadened to include European history, medieval history, Renaissance and reformation, architectural history, history of religion, and social, economic, cultural and intellectual histories. In recent decades, new fields or sub-fields have been added, among them early or colonial American history, world history, area and international relations studies, ethnic and racial studies, notably the Black history, history of science and medicine, and women studies. Today, history courses virtually cover all major world areas and on various aspects of human life from ancient time to the present and are available from introductory lectures to advanced graduate seminars. Currently, the size of the standing faculty of the Department is around forty.