Contributors

The Academy of Philadelphia (today known as the University of Pennsylvania), founded through Benjamin Franklin’s influence in 1751, and the Dessau Philanthropine, founded by Johann Bernhard Basedow in 1774, were arguably the first non‐denominational schools in the eighteenth century. Yet, the congenial educational ideas of their founders have never been compared in detail. Since a comprehensive comparison of the Philadelphia Academy and the Dessau Philanthropine is lacking, it is the aim of this essay to provide at least a sketch of such a comparison. Thus the first two parts of the essay closely examine the essential contents of the different curricula of the two schools, the confessional backgrounds of the teachers and trustees in Philadelphia and Dessau, and the denominational and social backgrounds of the pupils attending the Academy and the Philanthropine. The third part then offers a general assessment of the results of the comparison of the two schools. It will become apparent that both Franklin and Basedow were heavily influenced by John Locke’s writings on education and on religious toleration, that they started to put Locke’s ideas into practice at about the same time (between the 1750s and the 1770s), that their schools were indeed open to teachers and pupils of all denominations, and that their educational institutions truly served a common purpose as they satisfied all demands for religious tolerance.