About
University of Mary Washington (UMW) is a public liberal arts university in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Established in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Fredericksburg, the institution later became known as Fredericksburg Teachers College, and was named Mary Washington College in 1938 after Mary Ball Washington, mother of the first president of the United States, George Washington. The General Assembly of Virginia changed the college's name to University of Mary Washington in 2004 to reflect the addition of graduate and professional programs to the central undergraduate curriculum, as well as the establishment of more than one campus. The university offers more than 60 graduate and undergraduate degree programs in three colleges: Arts and Sciences, Business, and Education.