The New International Encyclopædia/Pennsylvania, Western University of

PENNSYLVANIA, Western University of. An institution at Allegheny, Pa.; the second oldest institution of learning west of the Appalachian Mountains, founded as the Pittsburg Academy in 1786, incorporated in 1787, and reincorporated under its present name in 1819. Since 1895 women have been admitted on the same terms as men. The university comprises collegiate, engineering, medical, and law departments, and colleges of pharmacy and dentistry. Several of the schools are institutions formerly independent. The Medical School became a part of the university in 1892, and the Law School in 1895. The Allegheny observatory was founded in 1859 by the Allegheny Astronomical Society, and in 1867 was transferred to the university. It has achieved an international reputation through the work of its successive directors, Professors Langley and Keeler, in the fields of solar physics and astronomical spectroscopy. New buildings for this department were erected in 1901. In 1902 the university had 892 students, 116 instructors, and a library of 20,000 volumes.