Washington College is a secular liberal arts institution in Chestertown, Maryland. Founded in 1782, it is the 10th oldest college in the country, the first chartered higher education institution in the entire United States post-independence.
Chestertown is in eastern Maryland, the Atlantic side of Chester River, which passes nearby before joining the stretch of water that separates the university from Baltimore, Maryland’s most populous city. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is an 80-mile north-westerly drive from the college through Delaware.
Washington offers more than 40 study programmes, primarily for undergraduates. English, psychology, social sciences and marketing rank among the most popular. The vast majority of Washington students reside on campus.
George Washington donated money to the college, served on the Board of Visitors and Governors and agreed that it could use his name, which has been part of its title throughout its history. But the college’s main founder was Rev. William Smith, who was its first president, and rode across the region on horseback to raise money to secure the institution’s future.
James M. Cain, the crime fiction author widely thought of as a founder of Roman noir, and Benjamin H. Vandervoort, a Second World War lieutenant colonel who played a role in the D-Day landings, fighting with a broken leg, as portrayed by John Wayne in film The Longest Day, both studied at the university.
