Image

The University of Western Pennsylvania, by Russell Smith, 1833.
Credit: Courtesy of the Carnegie Museum of Art, received from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in exchange for Works from the Robert S. Waters Estate
The University of Pittsburgh traces its history to a log cabin school founded in 1787. Incorporated in 1819 as the University of Western Pennsylvania, it remained a small private college until a close alliance with wealthy industrialists led to its expansion and name change to the University of Pittsburgh in 1908.


