During his provostship (1881-1894) William Pepper propelled the University of Pennsylvania to the front ranks of American universities by founding several departments and erecting additional buildings on its relatively new West Philadelphia campus. It was one of his dreams to bring together under one roof artifacts that evidenced the development and history of humanity from antiquity to the present. In 1887 he persuaded the University trustees to accept artifacts from an upcoming expedition to the ancient site of Nippur (Iraq) and secured their promise to erect a fireproof building to house them. This agreement was the beginning of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Antiquities accumulated by the University were gathered together in a large room on the top floor of College Hall, and presented to the public in 1889 as the Museum of Archaeology and Palaeontology. As the Nippur artifacts and other collections began to arrive, the Museum was relocated in 1890 to the newly erected University Library, designed by architect Frank Furness. Some of the collections were displayed in the cubical stair tower or adjacent rooms. Artifacts from the Americas, the major section, were given the foremost gallery on the top floor of the cathedral-like nave.
