Following his retirement from teaching in 1934, Edward Potts Cheyney was invited by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania to write a history of the University in celebration of its bicentennial. Cheyney completed the project, published as the present work, in 1940. This, then, is his history of the University of Pennsylvania from its founding to its bicentennial anniversary.

"The distinguished professor emeritus Edward Potts Cheyney has written a history of his alma mater that commands attention. His account is . . . based on the official documents, supported by the researches of colleagues and friends, and illuminated by an affectionate understanding that springs from sixty years of personal knowledge and participation." - Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography