About Dr. William Pepper, Jr.
 William
Pepper Jr. was born in Philadelphia August 21,
1843 to William Sr. and Sarah (Platt) Pepper.
William Sr. was a prominent physician at the
Pennsylvania Hospital and professor at the University
of Pennsylvania.
William Pepper Jr. attended
the University of Pennsylvania where he earned
his bachelor degree in 1862 graduating Valedictorian
of his class and splitting the Senior English
Prize. He went on to the Medical School at
the University of Pennsylvania and received his
Medical Degree in 1864.
Pepper began his medical career as a resident
physician at the Pennsylvania Hospital. He was
a lecturer at the medical school of the University
of Pennsylvania where he taught Morbid Anatomy
from 1868- 1870. He continued this with other
subjects such as Clinical Medicine from 1870-1874
and Physical Diagnosis from 1871-1873. In 1874,
Pepper became professor of Clinical Medicine
at the University of Pennsylvania.
While traveling
in Europe in 1871, Pepper studied the methods
of medical education and institutional administration
that would form his ideas about medical education.
When he returned, Pepper used his new found
beliefs to open the Hospital of the University
of Pennsylvania. The Hospital expanded the curriculum
of the Medical School by supplementing the classroom
teaching with clinical training.
In 1881, Dr. Pepper was unanimously elected
the eleventh Provost for the University of Pennsylvania.
At the time of his arrival, the University had
a standing faculty of 42 who taught in the five
schools – Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Medicine,
Law, and Dentistry, and a total student population
of 1,044 students. Under Pepper's leadership,
the University of Pennsylvania was transformed
into a modern university.
Pepper established
two key programs for the University of Pennsylvania,
the Wharton School of Business and the Graduate
School of Arts and Science. By the time of
his departure from the University in 1895, the
faculty had grown to 245 and the number of schools
to nine – Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School
of Arts and Science, General Studies, Engineering,
Wharton School of Business, Medicine, Law,
Dentistry, and Veterinarian Medicine, with a
total student enrollment of 2,680 students.
In addition to his work at the University of
Pennsylvania, William Pepper Jr. was active in
several cultural and educational institutions
in Philadelphia. Pepper was the Medical Director
of the Centennial Exposition of 1876. He was
instrumental in founding the Free Library of
Philadelphia in 1891-1892 and also founded the
University of Pennsylvania Archaeological Museum
in 1887, the Wistar Institute in 1894, and the
Philadelphia Commercial Museum in 1898. William
Pepper belonged to the American Philosophical
Society and the College of Physicians.
William Pepper Jr. married Frances Sergeant
Perry in 1873. They had three children, William
Pepper [III], who went on to become one of the
University of Pennsylvania's dean of the Medical
School, B. Franklin Pepper, and Oliver Hazard
Perry Pepper. William Pepper Jr. died July 25,
1898.
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