University of Washington history

The legislature passed articles incorporating the university, and establishing its Board of Regents in 1862.

The first UW graduate was a female in 1867.

After becoming the Territorial University's first graduate in 1876, Clara McCarty became a teacher, the most common career for an educated woman at the time.

The University established a specific program to train teachers — called the "Normal curriculum, as differentiated from the "Classical" or "Scientific" courses it offered — in 1878.

By the time Washington state entered the Union in 1889, both Seattle and the university had grown substantially.

In 1891, Robert S. Brookings was named to the board of the growing university.

In the spring of 1892, Brookings and several other board members were appointed to a special real estate committee charged with finding a new site for the university.

The site plan was developed in 1895 by Frederick Law Olmsted, and the architecture firm of Cope and Stewardson, winner of the national competition, was selected.

The university seal was developed in 1896 by Holmes Smith, professor of drawing and history of art, using elements from the coat of arms of George Washington (after whom the university is named) and fleurs-de-lis, the symbol of King Louis IX, patron and namesake of St Louis.

The seal was officially adopted by the Board of Trustees in March 1897.

The School of Law and the Graduate School were both founded in 1899.

In 1900, construction was begun on the first five buildings of a plan based on the medieval courtyards of Oxford and Cambridge Colleges.

Brookings began its transformation by making it a true university department in 1906, with board oversight of its finances and policies.

The original Territorial University building was torn down in 1908, and its former site now houses the Fairmont Olympic Hotel.

Organizers of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition eyed the still largely undeveloped campus as a prime setting for their world's fair.

In 1911, Brookings signed contracts linking the university with St Louis Children’s Hospital and the newly constructed Barnes Hospital.

After many years as a Department of Education housed within the College of Arts and Sciences, on January 21, 1913, the UW introduced its School of Education.

The College of Education was officially formed December 15, 1914.

The university’s motto, which appears inside an open book in the middle of the university seal, is Per Veritatem Vis, “Strength through Truth.” The motto was adopted in 1915.

In 1942, all persons of Japanese ancestry in the Seattle area were forced into inland internment camps as part of Executive Order 9066 following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Among the most important developments of this period was the opening of the School of Medicine in 1946, which is now consistently ranked as the top medical school in the United States.

The current version of the official university seal was created in 2000, incorporating the same elements.

The first freshman classes at these campuses started in fall 2006.

In 2009 the University expanded abroad, opening an office in Leon Spain.

In 2012, the university began exploring plans and governmental approval to expand the main Seattle campus, including significant increases in student housing, teaching facilities for the growing student body and faculty, as well as expanded public transit options.

The University of Washington light rail station was completed in March 2015, connecting Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood to the UW Husky Stadium within five minutes of rail travel time.