Washington and Lee University

Washington and Lee University, privately controlled liberal arts institution, in Lexington, Virginia. Founded in 1749, it was chartered as a college in 1782. In 1798 the college received a bequest from George Washington. It bore the name Washington College from 1813 to 1871, when the present name was adopted in honor also of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, who had been president of the college from 1865 to 1870. Divisions of the university are the college and the school of commerce, economics, and politics, both of which confer the bachelor's degree; and the school of law, which confers the first professional degree.