Dedicated in 1919, it was designed by sculptor R. Tait McKenzie and honors its namesake George Whitefield, Anglican cleric who was a founder of Methodism.

In 2020, in reaction to the George Floyd protests, the university administration removed the statue due to Whitefield's defense of slavery.

The monument bore the inscription, "The University of Pennsylvania held its first session in a building erected for his congregation and was aided by his collections, guided by his counsel, and inspired by his life.

[2] Following Whitefield's sermons, the building would be used by Benjamin Franklin as the location for a new institution of higher learning, which would eventually become the University of Pennsylvania.

[3] In 1914, R. Tait McKenzie, a sculptor and the university's director of physical education, was commissioned for the project,[1] and he began working on a design for the statue by 1917.

[11] Around this time, Princeton University, another Ivy League university, had announced that they would be renaming a building that had been named after U.S. President Woodrow Wilson due to his racist views,[10] while in Philadelphia, a statue of Frank Rizzo near Philadelphia City Hall was removed due to his racist actions.

[11] About a month before this, on June 19, The Daily Pennsylvanian (the university's student newspaper) had published an opinion piece that called for the statue to be removed.