Temple University
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an institution for higher education, in Philadelphia, founded in 1888. In 1907 the name was changed from Temple College to Temple University. It has a law school, a theological school, a medical school, and a department of elementary education. In 1919 there were 4,602 students and 305 members of the faculty. President, R. H. Conwell, D.D. TEMPLE, SIR WILLIAM, an English statesman; born in London, in 1628; was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He afterward passed six years in France, Holland, Flanders, and Germany. On his return (1654), not choosing to accept office under Cromwell, he occupied himself in the study of history and philosophy. After the Restoration (1660) he was nominated one of the commissioners from the Irish Parliament to the king. On the breaking out of the Dutch War (1665) he was employed in a mission to the Bishop of Münster, who offered to attack the Dutch, and in the following year was appointed resident at Brussels, and received the honor of a baronetcy. In conjunction with DeWitt he concluded the treaty between England, Holland, and Sweden (Triple Alliance, 1668), the result being to oblige France to restore her conquests in the Netherlands. He also attended, as ambassador extraordinary, when peace was concluded between France and Spain at Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), and subsequently residing at The Hague as ambassador, became familiar with the Prince of Orange, afterward William III. Recalled in 1669, Sir William remained in retirement at Sheen till 1674, when he was again ambassador to the States-General, and engaged in the Congress ess of Nimeguen, by which a general pacification was latterly effected, 1679. He was instrumental in promoting the marriage of the Prince of Orange with Mary, eldest daughter of the Duke of York (James II., 1677). Shortly after his return he was elected to represent the University of Cambridge in Parliament. In 1681 he retired from public life altogether. Swift was an inmate of his house for some time. His Memoirs and Letters are especially interesting to the student of history. His Miscellanies consist of essays on various subjects: "Gardening," "The Cure of the Gout," Gout," "Ancient and Modern Learning," "Health and Long Life," "Poems and Translations," etc. He died in Moor Park, Surrey, Jan. 27, 1699.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's counted 4,602 students in 1919 under Russell H. Conwell, the Baptist preacher who had built the school from night classes for working people and paid for it largely with his lecture "Acres of Diamonds"; he stayed president until his death in 1925. Temple is now one of the largest universities in Pennsylvania, with roughly 30,000 students, and since 1965 it has been state-related rather than private, receiving an annual appropriation from the Commonwealth. Its law and medical schools survive and have grown; the theological school and the department of elementary education described in 1921 have not, the former closing as Temple shed its Baptist ties. In 1982 it opened a campus in Tokyo, later recognized by Japan's education ministry as a foreign university's Japanese branch.
Written for this edition, 2026.