The first recorded exhibition of student work seems to have taken place in 1879, when 120 works were displayed in a separate gallery during the annual exhibition, a practice that ended by 1885.

Early in the twentieth century, a spring exhibition became a regular feature of the school program. This event functions both as a celebration of the completion of the school year and as a forum for the awarding of certificates, degrees, and more than one hundred spring prizes and travel scholarships. In the mid-twentieth century it was informally referred to as Cresson Day, a reference to the major travel scholarship.

Since the early 1920s, formal graduation exercises, an awards ceremony, and a guest speaker have been included, and the event is now commonly referred to as the Annual Student Exhibition(ASE)which includes students of all levels (certificate, undergraduate, graduate). Printed announcements for the exhibitions, lists of prizewinners, and other documentation of the graduation day are part of the student records. PAFA students who wished to earn an undergraduate degree was able to enroll in PAFA's Cooperative program with the University of Pennsylvania, which was established in 1929.

Written by Cheryl Leibold (PAFA's Archivist, 1985-2010)

-Finding Aid for Annual Student Exhibition photographs

-Read more on Cresson Memorial Travel Scholarship

-Browse enrolled student name index (1910s-1949)