GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES, Philadelphia, Feb. 9, 1803  

* Very early Dickinson College
* Found by Benjamin Rush 
* Advertisement for admission

The back page has a terrific & quite detailed notice headed: "DICKINSON COLLEGE" which details the stringent requirements of the students, and that: "...trustees & professors are equally solicitous that the seminary should be placed on a respectable footing & that as complete an education should be obtained here as in any other college on the continent..." and noting: "...those who offer themselves for admission...if found deficient in classical learning must spend such time as may be necessary in the grammar school..." with more, (see).
Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was chartered on September 9, 1783, six days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution causing it to be the first college to be founded in the newly independent nation. It was also the western-most college in the nation at the time.
Four pages, nice condition.

Background: The 1803 Gazette notice highlights a foundational tension in the early American Republic: the struggle to define a distinctly American system of higher education that balanced democratic utility with classical European prestige. Founded in 1783 as the first college chartered in the newly independent United States, Dickinson College was intended by founder Benjamin Rush to break away from traditional aristocratic curriculums in favor of practical sciences and modern subjects suited for a rising democracy. However, the strict classical entrance requirements and threats of remedial grammar school detailed in this 1803 notice reveal that the institution was forced to compromise its progressive ideals to maintain institutional legitimacy and compete for elite students against entrenched giants like Harvard and Princeton. This document captures the exact moment the nation's westernmost college had to pivot, illustrating how early American educators had to anchor themselves in traditional European scholarship while simultaneously trying to forge an educated citizenry capable of leading a fragile new republic.