19th century Founding and early years , first president of the board of trustees|alt=William Greenleaf Eliot, first president of the board of trustees Washington University was founded in 1853 by 17
St. Louis business, religious, and political leaders concerned by the lack of institutions of higher learning in the
Midwest. State Senator
Wayman Crow and
Unitarian minister
William Greenleaf Eliot led the effort. Crow secured the
university charter, and Eliot was named president of the board of trustees, with Crow serving as vice president.
Joseph Gibson Hoyt became the university's inaugural chancellor. Unlike most American institutions, Washington University initially lacked a financial endowment and did not have the backing of a religious organization, wealthy patron, or government support. Originally called
Eliot Seminary, the name faced opposition from Eliot himself, who favored a
nonsectarian identity for the institution. To address this, Eliot appointed a subcommittee consisting of himself and
Samuel Treat to recommend a new name. The subcommittee proposed
Washington Institute, in honor of
George Washington, the nation's first
president, as the charter had been granted on his birthday, February 22. The board unanimously approved the proposal. In 1856, the board officially amended the name to
Washington University.
Growth and expansion Chartered as a university, it initially functioned primarily as a
night school and did not have buildings, faculty, or established course offerings. Classes began on October 22, 1854, in the Benton Schoolhouse, a facility loaned by the public school board, which also covered utility costs and installed gas lighting for evening instruction. Tuition was offered free of charge. By the end of the first year, 270 students had enrolled, with ages ranging from 8 years old to 46 years old. The university hired four teachers from the public school system, two of whom later became the university's first full-time faculty members. In 1856, the university completed the first building on the three-acre site that it had purchased on Seventeenth Street and Washington Avenue. Washington University remained located in
downtown St. Louis for its first fifty years. In 1856, Eliot and other trustees established a preparatory academic department for boys. Admission was granted to boys aged ten and older who passed an exam in reading, writing, geography, and basic arithmetic. In 1859, a preparatory female department was established. In recognition of Eliot's leadership, the university insisted on naming it the Mary Institute, in honor of his daughter. In 1879, the academic department for boys was named Smith Academy. became the first manual training school established in the United States. Students' time was divided equally between
manual training and schoolwork. In 1915, the university adopted its motto,
Per veritatem vis, which translates to "Strength through truth". Robert S. Brookings, president of the board, leased the first five University buildings to the Fair. The generated from the lease was then used to fund the construction of four additional buildings, which were also used by the Fair. By 1905, the number of course offerings in the college had tripled. In 1909, the college implemented curricular changes that included a distribution requirement and a limit on how much concentration was allowed in a single field of study. The School of Medicine formalized partnerships with Barnes Hospital in 1911 and
St. Louis Children's Hospital in 1912. These agreements required hospital staffs to consist entirely of university faculty, while granting the university access to patients for clinical instruction and research. In return, Washington University pledged to construct and maintain modern medical facilities and laboratories adjacent to the hospitals. In 1915, the university completed a new medical complex on Kingshighway Boulevard. Three years later, Aphrodite Jannopoulo, Carol Skinner Cole, and
Faye Cashatt became the first women to enroll as medical students. In 1922,
Arthur Holly Compton, head of the Department of Physics, conducted a series of experiments in the basement of Eads Hall that demonstrated the particle concept of electromagnetic radiation. Compton's discovery, known as the "
Compton Effect," earned him the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927. In 1923, Washington University became a member of the
Association of American Universities.
Desegregation and Social Change In 1945, four African-American students were denied admission to the university's summer school, prompting the
NAACP and the city of St. Louis to file a lawsuit challenging the institution's
tax-exempt status. The suit argued that the university's
segregationist policies violated its obligations as a tax-exempt entity. Although the legal action did not succeed, it led the university's board of directors to publicly address the issue of segregation for the first time. Compton, after 22 years at the
University of Chicago, returned to Washington University in 1946 to become its ninth chancellor. He reestablished the Washington University football team and emphasized a "strictly
amateur" athletic policy with no
athletic scholarships. Under Compton, the university saw enrollment growth, driven by World War II veterans using the
G.I. Bill, which covered college costs for military personnel. In spring 1946, enrollment increased by 39 percent to 9,159 students; by fall 1947, enrollment had reached 13,204 students. Before the board fully responded, the initiative for desegregation was taken up by individual deans and departments. In June 1947, the medical school sought retroactive approval for admitting an African-American student to a postgraduate course in
ophthalmology, which the board granted. That same year, President
Harry S. Truman's Commission on Higher Education recommended repealing segregation laws in higher education. By 1964, over two-thirds of incoming students came from outside the St. Louis area.
Activism and identity In the late 1960s, Black students established the Association of Black Collegians (ABC). The group (later the Association of Black Students) supported Black students, addressed issues related to campus policing, and advocated for more inclusive representation in the academic curriculum. On December 5, 1968, Elbert Walton, an
MBA student, had an incident with campus police. Around 10:30 a.m., officers stopped him, and he reportedly refused to show his ID. The police then took him to the ground, handcuffed him, and placed him in a police car. Walton was later taken to the police station, where he sat in a chair while still handcuffed. When ABC learned about Walton's arrest, the group organized a
sit-in at the police office, later expanding their occupation to the basement of Brookings Hall. After arrests and negotiations, the university expanded diversity efforts, including the establishment of the department of
African and African-American Studies. In May 1970, Washington University experienced student unrest in response to the
U.S. invasion of Cambodia and the
Kent State shooting. On the evening of May 4, a large meeting in Brookings Quadrangle led to a march of 1,200 to 1,500 students toward the
AFROTC building. The building was subsequently damaged by a rock-throwing crowd and set on fire in the early hours of May 5. County firemen extinguished the fire after initial attempts by the Clayton Fire Department were hindered by protestors. In 1971, the board of trustees appointed Chancellor
William Henry Danforth. According to
The New York Times, under Chancellor Danforth, Washington University transformed from a commuter school into a world-renowned institution. During his 24-year chancellorship, he established 70 new endowed professorships, constructed dozens of buildings, secured a $1.72 billion endowment, and tripled the number of student scholarships. To better distinguish itself in national media, the university's
board of trustees added the phrase "in St. Louis" in 1976.
Institutional development and expansion In 1995,
Mark S. Wrighton, the former
provost at
MIT, was elected the university's 14th chancellor. During Chancellor Wrighton's tenure, undergraduate applications to Washington University more than doubled, and the university has added more than 190 endowed professorships, revamped its Arts & Sciences curriculum, and completed more than 30 new buildings. The university has also built more than 50 new buildings and increased its endowment by more than $5 billion.
21st century In 2005, Washington University established the "McDonnell International Scholars Academy", an international network of research universities aimed at adressing global challenges such as disease and poverty through academic collaboration, with an initial endowment gift of $10,000,000 () from
John F. McDonnell. Initially, it began with 15 partner institutions in Asia. The
Hilltop Campus was renamed the
Danforth Campus in 2006 to honor former chancellor
William H. Danforth. In 2014, a study ranked Washington University first in the country for income inequality with approximately 22 percent of its students coming from the top one percent of earners, and about 6 percent from the bottom sixty percent of earners. In response to criticism, the university committed to increase the percentage of
Pell-eligible students on campus from 6 percent to 13 percent by 2020. The university achieved that goal three years early, and , 19.9 percent of undergraduate students were eligible for Pell Grants, representing a 300 percent increase since 2012. In June 2019,
Andrew D. Martin, the former dean of the
College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the
University of Michigan, was elected the university's 15th chancellor. At his inauguration, Martin announced the "WashU Pledge", a program that offers free tuition to full-time students from Missouri and southern Illinois whose families either earn $75,000 or less per year or qualify for Pell Grants (federal money that helps low-income students pay for college and doesn't need to be repaid). In 2021, the university launched a $1 billion plan called Gateway to Success. Another $200 million was set aside to help graduate and professional students pay for school. In 2024, Washington University purchased the 16-acre campus of neighboring
Fontbonne University, which is set to close in 2025, for $39 million. at the Washington University Field House|alt=2008 Vice Presidential Debate at the Washington University Field House
U.S. presidential and vice-presidential debates , Washington University has been the venue for four presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate: the inaugural
1992 presidential debate on October 11, 1992, the third
2000 Presidential debate on October 17, the second
2004 Presidential debate on October 8, the sole
2008 Vice Presidential debate between
Joe Biden and
Sarah Palin on October 2, and the second
2016 Presidential debate on October 9. A 1996 debate was scheduled but canceled when the number of debates was reduced to two. == Organization and administration ==