University Archives and Records Center
University of Pennsylvania

History of the School of Dental Medicine

Penn's School of Dental Medicine is among the oldest university-affiliated dental institutions in the nation. It was created in 1878 as the Department of Dentistry of the University of Pennsylvania, and its first facilities were housed in Medical Hall (later Logan Hall and now Claudia Cohen Hall). In 1880 the Department of Dentistry occupied jointly with the Department of Medicine the new Hare Hall, at the northeast corner of 36^th and Spruce Streets (now the site of Williams Hall). The Department of Dentistry, in 1895, moved to its own new building on Smith Walk between 33^rd and 34^th streets, now known as Hayden Hall.

In 1897, Philadelphia's Thomas W. Evans, confidante of Napoleon III and the cosmopolitan, brilliant, and innovative dentist to the courts of Europe during France's Second Empire, left his estate to the University of Pennsylvania to create and maintain a dental school that would be "second to none." Evans' generosity made possible the construction of the Evans Building (officially called the Thomas W. Evans Museum and Dental Institution) which opened in 1915, the best-equipped dental building in the nation at that time. His boldness and spirit of leadership have continued to guide the School throughout its history of expansion and innovation both in curriculum and in clinical and scientific facilities

Throughout the twentieth century, Penn's School of Dental Medicine has grown in size and consistently been at the forefront of the dramatic changes that have characterized the profession of dentistry during that time. Nevertheless, Penn's School of Dental Medicine has remained faithful to its original mission: "to prepare students for qualification for dental practice, to provide graduate training for qualified practitioners and to create the opportunity and facilities for scientific research in dentistry."

Based for the most part on the 1984 School of Dental Medicine Bulletin

School of Dental Medicine Records at the University Archives

More history of Dental Medicine