History and Development of the Institution
The University was founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women in Fredericksburg. It was renamed Mary Washington College in 1938, after having undergone a transformation from a teacher’s college to Virginia’s public liberal arts college for women. Then in 1944, Mary Washington College became affiliated with the University of Virginia as its women’s undergraduate arts and sciences division. In 1970 the University of Virginia became coeducational and in 1972, by action of the General Assembly of Virginia, the Mary Washington College became an independent, state-supported institution for women and men, with its own governing board. On July 1, 2004, the institution became the University of Mary Washington with two colleges: the undergraduate residential College of Arts and Sciences in Fredericksburg, and the College of Graduate and Professional Studies in Stafford County.