University of Pennsylvania. Zelosophic Society

The Zelosophic Society was formed in May 1829 as a response to the Philomathean Society, an exclusive literary society formed on campus in 1813. Commonly called "Zelo," the society's purpose was to discuss literature and conduct debates (much like the charge of its counterpart group).

Debates against their rival the Philomathean Society, began in 1847 and drew large crowds to various Philadelphia auditoriums. On the eve of the Civil War, for example, a debate on slavery took place while pistols lay atop the lectern between the debaters. In 1862, a committee of Zelo members, including J.M. Power Wallace (twice treasurer, Class of 1865) succeeded in forming a union with similar literary organizations on other college campuses, including Columbia, Brown, and Lafayette. The umbrella group, called the United States Literary League was the first co-operative group of its kind in America, but it seems to have only lasted through 1866.

Zelo's troubles would not end there. The University's move to West Philadelphia from the Ninth and Chestnut Streets campus in 1872 would cripple the Society. West Philadelphia was then a suburb of the central residential section of the city proper and transportation was difficult in the evening in this pre-trolley, subway, and automobile era. Zelo also suffered from the competition for the student's interest which the Franklin Scientific Society, formed in 1876. There was not enough interest and students to support two literary societies and one scientific society. Membership in Zelo steadily declined and it cease to function after the 1874-1875 academic year.

By 1876 the Zelosophic Society discontinued to exist. In the void created by Zelo's absence came the Franklin Scientific Society, which was formed in 1875 and eventually came to occupy the same rooms, to use the same library, and to conduct itself in a similar manner to the Zelosophic Society. When the last of the scientific societies, the Scientific Society of the University of Pennsylvania, began to lose steam in the early 1890s and eventually died, a group of former members of the Scientific Society decided to try to form a new public lecture and debate society. In the fall of 1892 two members of the class of 1894, Arthur Hobson Quinn and Cheesman A. Herrick, founded the Historical Society of the University of Pennsylvania. The society changed its name to the Zelosophic Society of the University of Pennsylvania in December 1892 and received an inheritance (in the form of a room in College Hall, library and archive) from the original Zelosophic Society.

In 1893, Zelo began a campaign to promote intercollegiate debates, the first debate being held that year between Pennsylvania and Cornell University. A similar campaign was undertaken the following year to further the cause of intercollegiate oratory, and Zelo members subsequently founded the Pennsylvania State Inter-Collegiate Oratorical Association. In 1908 the Society branched out once again, this time into drama, an interest begun when Zelo offered to sponsor the Philadelphia performances of a touring English troupe called the Ben Greet Players. With the inspiration of these actors Zelo began to perform plays annually. In 1915, they produced "The Prince of Partha" the first English play published by an American-born playwright, Thomas Godfrey (a friend of Francis Hopkinson, Class of 1757). Two years later, and eighty-eight years after its inception, Zelo was officially incorporated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Throughout its history the Zelosophic Society has produced two principal publications, literary magazines called The Critic and The Zelosophic Magazine. Each publication was alternately revived and became defunct throughout the history of Zelo. Notable members of Zelo included Herbert E. Ives, the inventor of the first cathode ray tube, which would eventually evolve into the modern television.

From the description of Records, 1829-1942. (University of Pennsylvania). WorldCat record id: 145429265