It's doubtful even Ben Franklin knew this much about his contemporaries.
Penn students can now track the historical achievements of Penn's earliest alumni -- including the influence of Penn graduates on the Lewis and Clark expedition -- through the Web site EarlyPenn.com.
The site was created by Scott Hawley, a 1992 Penn graduate with an affinity for esoteric Penn history.
William Gilpin -- one early graduate whose adventures are detailed on the site -- served as the first territorial governor of Colorado.
Another alumnus, Benjamin Shumard, organized the first major Texas geological survey.
And Hawley is out to document as many as he can.
Currently finishing his MBA at Emory University in Atlanta, Hawley is also working in business development for a consulting firm.
The 36-year-old began doing research for the Web site five years ago and has spent the past three months putting the site together.
EarlyPenn features 114 biographies of colonial Penn alumni, spread across all 50 states.
"What's interesting is that all of these people passed through Philadelphia and passed through Penn before getting this wander-lust and pushing all these boundaries," Hawley said.
But Hawley doesn't want to be the only one helping the site grow.
He hopes that other viewers will take notice of his creation and contribute by submitting entries about any alumni that they know of. Any user can contribute an entry on a famous Penn alumnus, which Hawley will check before publication.
For Hawley, Penn was the first home he had, and he immediately took an interest in its history.
"My father was in the Air Force for his whole career, so I was born in Alaska and lived all over the country," Hawley said. "I never felt like I had a home anywhere until I came to Penn."
His love for Penn led him to work in the University archives with its director, Mark Lloyd, while he was an undergraduate.
"I always wondered who came before all of us," Hawley said.
And Hawley's original mentor from the University archives expects EarlyPenn.com to flourish.
"My sense is that Scott's work has been very successful in the past, and I fully expect his EarlyPenn.com to be so in the future," Lloyd said. "I think it's an extraordinary accomplishment."
But the Web site is meant to inspire more than inquisitive Penn students and alumni.
Hawley ultimately hopes that the University will choose to use the postal lands -- 24 acres east of Penn's campus that the University will acquire next year -- to rebuild the original College and Academy of Philadelphia, the first buildings used by students at Penn.
