University of Pittsburgh

On February 28, 1787, the Pennsylvania legislature passed an act establishing the Pittsburgh Academy, a private school of higher learning, whose creation had been urged by Hugh Henry Brackenridge.⁠[1]

The school began in a modest building in what is now downtown Pittsburgh.⁠[2]

In 1789 George Welch became the school’s first leader, with the title of principal.⁠[3]

In the 1790s a $5,000 legislative grant paid for a two-story brick schoolhouse that replaced the original log house.⁠[1]

On February 18, 1819, the legislature rechartered the school as the Western University of Pennsylvania. In 1830 the university moved into a three-story college building next to the Academy.⁠[1]

In 1835 Gilbert Morgan became the first leader to hold the title of president, but he left a year later and the title reverted to principal.⁠[3]

In 1845 the Great Fire destroyed the university’s building and records, and classes met in the basement of Trinity Church. A second fire in 1849 destroyed the replacement building, and operations were suspended until 1855, when the university reopened in a new brick building at Ross Street and Diamond.⁠[1]

Because of these fires, the earliest surviving minutes of the board of trustees date from 1845.⁠[2]

In 1871 George Woods became the first leader to hold the title of chancellor.⁠[3]

After a fire destroyed the Allegheny County Court House in 1882, the university sold its property and relocated to Allegheny City, where it remained for more than 25 years.⁠[1]

In 1890 the university moved into two buildings on Observatory Hill on the North Side.⁠[2]

The medical school was chartered in 1886 as the Western Pennsylvania Medical College and joined the university in 1892.⁠[4]

In 1893 William Hunter Dammond became the university’s first African American graduate, and in 1898 the sisters Margaret and Stella Stein became its first women graduates.⁠[1]

In October 1908 the cornerstone was laid for the first building on the new Oakland campus, and the school was renamed the University of Pittsburgh. In 1910 Jean Hamilton Walls became its first Black woman student, and in 1912 the School of Medicine began admitting women.⁠[1]

The new campus site was then known as Schenley Farms, and State Hall was the first building of the new campus plan. Henry Hornbostel’s Greek Revival plan called for about 20 buildings but was never fully completed.⁠[2]

In March 1921, two months after becoming chancellor, John G. Bowman envisioned a tall tower that would tell Pittsburgh’s story; on November 6, 1924, he first called the building “a cathedral of learning.” The 14-acre Frick Acres site was given to the university by Andrew W.Andrew WangAndrew Wang is a fintech entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of Valon. Trained in computer science at Harvard, he worked at Goldman Sachs and Soros Fund Management before starting Valon in 2019 to build mortgage-servicing software.Open the full entry Mellon and Richard B. Mellon.⁠[5]

Ground was broken on September 27, 1926. The first class in the building, in engineering drafting, met on February 28, 1931, and Bowman laid the cornerstone in the Commons Room on June 4, 1937. The Nationality Rooms program, begun in 1926, presented its first rooms in 1938.⁠[5]

The university describes the Cathedral of Learning as a 42-story Gothic Revival landmark and the tallest educational building in the Western Hemisphere.⁠[6]

The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown was established in 1927; regional campuses at Bradford, Greensburg and Titusville followed later.⁠[1]

In 1947 the university brought in the influenza expert Jonas Salk to start a virus program. Studies of the polio vaccine in Pittsburgh-area schools from 1952 to early 1954 provided the data on which the 1954 national clinical trial, involving 1.8 million children across the United States, was based.⁠[7]

In May 1953 Pittsburgh hosted the first community pilot trial of the Pitt-developed vaccine.⁠[1]

On April 12, 1955, the vaccine developed by a Pitt research team led by Jonas Salk was announced as “safe, effective, and potent.”⁠[8]

In 1957 the Commons Room of the Cathedral of Learning was used for Salk polio vaccine inoculations.⁠[5]

In 1966 a bill made the university state-related, relieving serious financial strain.⁠[1]

On November 3, 1975, the National Park Service designated the Cathedral of Learning a National Landmark, and on February 22, 1977, Pittsburgh City Council designated it a Historic Structure.⁠[5]

In 1984, during Wesley W. Posvar’s tenure, the title changed to president; in 1992 the board of trustees restored the title of chancellor. Later chancellors were J. Dennis O’Connor (1991–1995), Mark A. Nordenberg (1995–2014) and Patrick GallagherPatrick GallagherPatrick Gallagher is a venture capitalist who co-founded CrunchFund with Michael Arrington in 2011. The firm became Tuesday Capital, where he is managing partner.Open the full entry (2014–2023).⁠[3]

On July 17, 2023, Joan T.A. Gabel officially became the university’s 19th chancellor. She had been president of the University of Minnesota System and Twin Cities campus since 2019 and began her career in higher education as a professor of legal studies.⁠[9]

Earlier in her career Gabel served as provost of the University of South Carolina and dean of the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri, and held the DeSantis Professorship of Legal Studies at Florida State University, where she was a department chair.⁠[10]

As of November 2026 Joan Gabel is the university’s chancellor. The Office of the Chancellor states that under her leadership the university adopted the Plan for Pitt and set records in research funding, enrollment and graduation rates.⁠[10]

The main campus is at 4200 Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh, with regional campuses at Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown and Titusville; the university is one of the 64 members of the Association of American Universities.⁠[6]

Pitt alumni Philip Hench (for work on cortisone) and Paul Lauterbur (for MRI) received the Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize is an international award established under the will of Alfred Nobel, comprising five prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace, awarded since 1901; its funds are managed by the Nobel Foundation, whose Board is based in Stockholm. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, established in 1968, is not a Nobel Prize.Open the full entry in Physiology or Medicine. Alumnus John Woodruff won the 800-meter gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.⁠[6]

University of Pittsburgh: Official website: https://www.pitt.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/school/university-of-pittsburgh/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@pittofficial (opens in a new window).⁠[6]