Yesterday’s News
Timeline | In the decades leading up to the new millennium, the University finds itself embroiled in the culture wars, celebrates its 250th anniversary, elects its first woman president, and rises in the rankings.
When the Search Is Over
The World Trade Center attacks prompted an intense search-and-rescue effort. How have the 9/11 dogs and their human handlers been faring? Two Penn professors, Dr. Cindy Otto and Dr. Melissa Hunt, are trying to find out.
Coming to Terms
During the High Holidays, a beloved rabbi nearing retirement and an author chronicling the search for his replacement mourn and remember their fathers.
Leaving and Coming Back
For a century the Gazette has been reporting on the annual rite of spring —Alumni Weekend and Commencement —in which alumni renew their ties with Penn and each other and the latest set of graduates says goodbye to their student days.
“Yea-a-a … Who?”
Ever wondered where “Rowbottoms” came from, why they call it “Hey Day,” or what flings in the spring? Here are attempts at explanations—with illustrative excerpts—of some Penn traditions past and present.
Alumni Weekend 2002
Alumni Weekend 2002
Changing Times
Our fourth Centennial timeline: 1961-1981.
The Student View
From freshman “dinks” to women’s “streaks”—and beyond. Some glimpses of campus life over the decades, as seen by the Gazette’s student columnists.
A Museum of One’s Own
Judy and Laurence Cutler were looking for an architectural masterpiece in which to set their immense collection of American illustration art. They found that at Vernon Court—along with a few disgruntled neighbors and a couple of missing doorknobs.
Youthland and Everything After
A cultural historian discusses the changing image of childhood in an interview and a new book.
The Century in Sports
Whether the cry from Quaker fans has been "Hurrah!" or "Help!" the Gazette has been there to record the wins, the losses, and the would/could/should have beens.
World War and Cold War: 1941-1960
Our third Centennial timeline: 1941-1960.
Bob Bigelow’s Full Court Press
The former Penn men's basketball standout and NBA journeyman knows what's wrong with organized youth sports in this country and has made a career out of delivering the news to the perpetrators of the crime: Parents.
First Visit, Last Farewell
In this excerpt from her new memoir about her “multicultural marriage,” the author writes of her son’s first trip to his father’s country of El Salvador and the death of a family patriarch.
Zahi Hawass and the Secrets of the Pyramids
Archaeology’s answer to Carl Sagan has generated unprecedented interest in Egypt’s past and believes that science and history can “create love between countries.” In a world of increasing tensions, he says that mission is more important than ever.
Making the Most of the Material Past
A stint as a “trainee mortician” set Penn English Professor Peter Stallybrass on the path to scholarship. These days, he prowls old bookstores and library stacks in search of the objects that make the past come to life.
The Big Picture
Muralist Jane Golden brings her vision of art as a medium for social change to Penn—and to one wall in the Mantua neighborhood north of campus.
The Boy Chemist at 75
Well over a half-century and one Nobel Prize later, Penn Professor Alan G. MacDiarmid still possesses—and communicates to students—the energy and enthusiasm of a 10-year old with his first chemistry book.
Penn Between the Wars: 1919-1940
Boom, bust, and the University’s bicentennial.
Hello, Dr. Chips
An emeritus English professor and frequent Gazette contributor looks at how Penn's faculty has been portrayed in the magazine during its first century.
A Selective (Old) Penn Chronology 1902-1918
Our first Centennial timeline covers 1902 to 1918, when Old Penn becomes the Gazette (and World War I ended).
Tweaking History … and Everything Else
Looking back at one of the Gazette's favorite illustrators
Browsing Penn’s Cyber Stacks
Scattered collections, brittle diaries, rare artifacts, handwritten plays, and more are flashing across computer screens worldwide, via the University's groundbreaking digital library project.
James Thomson and the Holy Grail
In 1998, graduate alumnus Dr. James Thomson won the race to isolate and culture human stem-cells for a sustained period—one of the holy grails of medical science—but he can’t outrun the controversy generated by his work. Increasingly, he isn’t trying.