WASHINGTON AND LEK UNIVER SITY, sn institution of higher learning, located at Lexingion, Va., midway between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains, which are here about 15 miles apart. Founded in 1749 as Augusta Academy, about 15 miles north of its present site, its name was enthusiastically changed to Liberty Hall Academy in the spring of 1776. The institution was moved to Lex ington in 1780 and formally chartered in 17.84 under an independent and self-perpetuating board of trustees. Liberty Hall Academy was endowed by George Washington with a gift of $50,000, and by hint authorized to change its name to Washington Academy, which was again changed in 1813 to Washington College. During the Civil War, the work of the college was dis continued, the student body enlisting in the Confederate army under name Liberty Hall Volunteers. The college property was much injured during Hunter's raid in the Valley of Virginia in June 1864., for which Congress granted remuneration 30 years later.
On 4 Aug. 1865 Gen. Robert E. Lee was elected prmident, and was formally installed on 2 October. During his devoted and efficient administration of five years, the growth of the college in numbers, curriculum, financial re sources, equipment and influence was phe nomenal. In 1866 the Lexington Law School, founded by Judge Brockenbrough in 1849, be came °The School of Law and Equity of Washington College.* In 1871, soon after Gen eral Lee's death, the name of Washington Col lege was changed to the present corporate title— °The Washington and Lee University.* The university property consists of about 140 acres of land and 25 buildings. The Lee Mausoleum, in the rear of the Lee Memorial Chapel, contains Valentine's recumbent statue of Lee, and in the crypt below are the remains of the whole Lee family, including °Light Horse Harry° Lee, the father of Robert Ed ward. The Bradford Art Gallery bequeathed to the university by Vincent L. Bradford of Philadelphia and the Lee collection of por traits of the Lee and Washington families are housed in the library and the Lee Chapel. The
latter contains Peale's portraits of VV.ashing ton and Lafayette, with other memorial por traits, busts and tablets. The principal bene factors of the university have been George Washington, its practical founder, his friend and follower, John Robinson, the Society of the Cincinnati, Cyrus H. McCormick, W. W. Corcoran, Thos. S. Scott, Andrew Carnegie, Vincent L. Bradford, Robert H. Bayley, Wm. H. Reid, Mrs. S. P. Lees, Mrs. Sophie New comb, Judge Thos. H. Harvey, George Pea body and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Parker Doremus.
The university organization includes (1) the School of Arts, (2) the School of Applied Science, (3) the School of Commerce, (4) the School of Law. The courses in the School of Arts are divided into three groups: (1) Lan guages, (2) humanitarian studies, (3) mathe matics and science For the A.B. or B.S. degree, a prescribed amount of study must be done in each group. Otherwise, the courses are entirely elective and modern languages may be substituted for classical. Although distinctively Christian in its traditions and ideals, the um versity is entirely independent, having no offi cial connection with Church or State. Its patronage is distinctly national, as its support has been, more than two-thirds of its 625 stu dents coming from other States than Virginia. Its methods of discipline and self-government have been known for generations as the (South ern Honor System.° In recent years, the university has adopted a universal and compulsory system of training in hygiene and physical education lasting during a student's whole course and a necessary re quirement for any degree. The United States maintains at the university a reserve officers training corps in charge of a professor of mili tary science and tactics. Military training, how ever, is optional, no student being required to take it.
The library of the university contains 55,000 volumes and its present endowment, including the Doremus residuary legacy, amounts to about $3,000,000.