Our History

Founded in 1908 and named for the mother of our country’s founding father, we have built a rich history of traditions and accomplished academic excellence. We have evolved from our beginnings as Fredericksburg’s State Normal and Industrial School for Women to one of the nation’s premier, selective public liberal arts and sciences universities today.

From 1944 to 1972, we functioned as the women’s college of the University of Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary academic organization, established a Mary Washington chapter in 1971. Shortly after we became coed in the early 1970s, we were reorganized as an independent college. Having added a limited number of graduate and professional programs beyond the central undergraduate curriculum, and having established more than one campus, the General Assembly of Virginia in 2004 renamed us University of Mary Washington.

We continued to evolve with the creation of two new colleges in the summer of 2010, when the College of Business and the College of Education joined the College of Arts and Sciences in fulfilling our mission of providing rigorous undergraduate and graduate programs.