The Penn Club of Philadelphia

With an original home on 8th and Locusts streets in Philadelphia, the Club came to existence after the American Civil War and prior to the Centennial Exhibition. The organizers were among those whose characters had been formed during the period of the war and that of the reconstruction that followed. Morton McMichael, Jr. made the lease of 720 Locust Street with Horace Howard Furness. James P. Sims arranged the scheme of decoration and designed the mantel upon which McMichael and Wharton Barker placed the statue of William Penn, modeled in plaster by Muller. Henry Armitt Brown hung the picture said to represent William Penn. The membership was limited to 200. The first president of the Club was Wharton Barker (1846–1921), who was a prominent abolitionist and president of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. He was also one of the original fifty members who founded the Union Club, which later became the Union League of Philadelphia. ==Purpose==

The intention of the Club is expressed in its charter: The Penn Club continues to this day, and meets in Center City, Philadelphia. The club is named for William Penn, and has no historical or current association with the University of Pennsylvania. The club's motto is: "Dum Clavum Teneam", which is taken from the Penn family's coat of arms. ==Awardees==

The Penn Club recognizes contributions to society with an award that consists of a bronze bust of William Penn. The bust was created by Beatrice Fenton, and the original is kept at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Past awardees include: Edwin Booth on November 29, 1875 John F. Hartranft on May 16, 1876 President Ulysses S. Grant on May 13, 1877 Walt Whitman on March 27, 1880 William S. Pepper, M.D. on February 22, 1881 Tommaso Salvini on January 16, 1883 Sir Henry Irving on December 1, 1883 John Patrick Ryan, Archbishop of Philadelphia on January 8, 1885 Gen. Lew Wallace on March 24, 1887 D. Hayes Agnew on March 4, 1889 J. William White on May 31, 1889 Adm. Robert Peary on November 12, 1892 Rev. Edward Everett Hale on November 14, 1893 John Sartain on April 26, 1894 Sir H. Beerbohm Tree on March 21, 1895 S. Weir Mitchell on November 17, 1900 Samuel W. Pennypacker on May 2, 1903 Joseph Swain on May 20, 1904 Philander Knox on November 12, 1907 John Luther Long on April 22, 1908 Viscount Northcliffe on November 9, 1908 William W. Keen, M.D. on February 20, 1909 Violet Oakley, Cecilia Beaux and Sara Yorke Stevenson on April 17, 1909 Martin G. Brumbaugh on March 17, 1910 Agnes Repplier on April 27, 1911 Leopold Stokowski on December 17, 1912 Boies Penrose on January 31, 1914 J. Hampton Moore on March 4, 1920 Cardinal Dennis Joseph Dougherty on November 7, 1921 George Wharton Pepper and George S. Pepper, President of the American Academy of Music, on May 16, 1922 John Philip Sousa on December 1, 1922 Gifford Pinchot on December 2, 1922 Cyrus E. Woods on December 22, 1923 W. Freeland Kendrick on March 19, 1924 Charles Curtis Harrison, Provost of The University of Pennsylvania on April 20, 1925 William W. Atterbury on October 31, 1925 John S. Fisher on December 3, 1927 John Ashurst III, Librarian of the Free Library of Philadelphia on February 28, 1928 Hon. Edwin Owen Lewis, Founder of the Independence National Historic Park on November 23, 1928 Joseph E. Widener on January 19, 1931 Thomas Sovereign Gates on April 20, 1931 William Wister Comfort on May 11, 1931 Cyrus H. K. Curtis on December 18, 1931 Adm. Arthur Japy Hepburn on November 17, 1933 Frederic A. Delano on February 26, 1934 Daniel C. Roper on February 28, 1935 Harold Willis Dodds on March 6, 1936 Samuel S. Fleischer on January 14, 1937 Eugene Ormandy on February 25, 1938 Prince Bertil of Sweden on May 13, 1940 1st Earl of Halifax on October 23, 1944 Juan Antonio Rios on October 19, 1945 John Jay McLoy on May 14, 1948 Harold Stassen on January 14, 1949 Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit on April 29, 1950 Gaylord Harnwell on October 24, 1953 John Marshall Butler on November 19, 1954 William McChesney Martin, Jr. on January 20, 1956 Gen. Omar Bradley on October 30, 1959 Hon. William Warren Scranton on October 25, 1963 Andrew Wyeth on October 6, 1964 Robert Orville Anderson on November 18, 1969 Shelby Callum Davis on January 13, 1971 Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Dr. Harold Glendon Scheie on October 11, 1972 Rudolf Serkin on October 31, 1974 F. Otto Haas, President of Rohm and Haas on October 29, 1975 James Michener on November 1, 1976 James W. Symington on April 18, 2000 Peter Lawson Johnston, President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation on November 16, 2000 Anne d’Harnoncourt on October 23, 2001 Lord Roberts of Belgravia on April 18, 2002 Paul A. Volcker on October 20, 2003 Ernesta D. Ballard on October 21, 2004 Hon. William Webster on April 21, 2005 Constantine Papakakis on November 16, 2005 Joaquin Jackson on April 22, 2006 Charles Blockson on April 26, 2007 John Bolton on April 24, 2008 Joseph J. Rishel on April 22, 2009 Vince Papale on December 4, 2012 Dom Duarte Pio on April 18, 2013 Gen. John Keane on April 24, 2014 The Vidocq Society on October 28, 2014 Hon. John Lehman on April 30, 2015 G. Andrew Meschter on May 3, 2016 Thomas Ridge on October 17, 2018 Edward Gene Rendell on November 10, 2021 Robert P. George on November 21, 2022 Patrick J. Toomey, Jr. on November 28, 2023 Ketch Secor on April 22, 2025 Theodore Schick on March 24, 2026 ==See also==