Washington University in St. Louis, founded as Eliot Seminary on February 22, 1853, had been conceived by seventeen St. Louis business, political, and religious leaders concerned by the lack of institutions of higher learning in the Midwest.

Missouri State Senator Wayman Crow and Unitarian minister William Greenleaf Eliot, grandfather of the poet T.S. Eliot, led the effort.

The university's first chancellor is Joseph Gibson Hoyt.

Crow had secured the university charter from the Missouri General Assembly in 1853, and Eliot had been named President of the Board of Trustees.

Early on, Eliot had solicited support from members of the local business community, including John O'Fallon, but Eliot had failed to secure a permanent endowment.

Washington University is unusual among major American universities in not having had a prior financial endowment.

The institution has no backing of a religious organization, single wealthy patron, or earmarked government support.

During the three years following its inception, the university bears three different names.

The board first approves "Eliot Seminary," but William Eliot is uncomfortable with naming a university after himself and objects to the establishment of a seminary, which would implicitly be charged with teaching a religious faith.

He favors a nonsectarian university.

In 1854, the Board of Trustees had changed the name to "Washington Institute" in honor of George Washington.

Naming the University after the nation's first president during a time of bitter national division is no coincidence.

Americans universally admired George Washington as the father of the United States and a symbol of national unity.

The Board of Trustees believes that the university should be a force of unity in a strongly divided Missouri.

In 1856, the University amends its name to "Washington University."

The university will amend its name once more in 1976, when the Board of Trustees votes to add the suffix "in St. Louis" to distinguish the university from the nearly two dozen other universities bearing Washington's name.