The Press was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 26, 1890, and the imprint of the University of Pennsylvania Press first appeared on publications in the closing decade of the nineteenth century, among the earliest such imprints in America. One of the Press's first book publications, in 1899, was a landmark: The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study, by renowned black reformer, scholar, and social critic W.E.B. Du Bois, a book that still remains in print on the Press's lists.
Today the Press has an active backlist of roughly 1, 500 titles and an annual output of upwards of 120 new books in a focused editorial program. Areas of special interest include American history and culture; ancient, medieval, and Renaissance studies; anthropology; landscape architecture; studio arts; human rights; Jewish studies; and political science. The Press also publishes ten peer-reviewed academic journals, mostly in the humanities, and the magazine Dissent.
The Press currently resides at 3905 Spruce Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The building housing the press is the former Potts House built by the Wilson Brothers & Company architecture firm in 1876. The house previously served as both the headquarters of International House Philadelphia and WXPN.