Saint Louis University

Saint Louis University traces its origins to the Saint Louis Academy, founded on November 16, 1818, by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, Bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas. The academy was first located in a private residence near the Mississippi River in what is now Gateway Arch National Park. In 1820, the name changed to Saint Louis College, and in 1827, Bishop DuBourg placed the institution under the care of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). It received its charter as a university by act of the Missouri Legislature shortly thereafter.

The university established the first medical school west of the Mississippi River in 1836 and the first law school in the West in 1843. In 1867, after the Civil War, the university purchased "Lindell's Grove" in what is now Midtown St. Louis and subsequently moved to this location, which remains the current site of today's north campus. Construction of DuBourg Hall began in 1888, and St. Francis Xavier College Church was completed in 1898.

In 1944, SLU became the first university in Missouri to establish an official policy admitting African-American students, following a passionate homily by Father Claude Heithaus challenging the institution's segregation policies. In 1967, SLU became one of the first Catholic universities to give laypeople majority control over the affairs of the school, shifting its board of trustees to an 18 to 10 lay majority.

The Madrid campus was established in 1967, becoming the first freestanding campus operated by an American university in Europe and the first American institution recognized by Spain's higher education authority as an official foreign university. In 2016, the university acknowledged its historical ties to slavery by revealing names and stories of Black Americans who had been enslaved by the institution and its founders, with descendants now petitioning for a physical monument on campus.

Throughout its history, SLU has achieved numerous "firsts," including the first federally licensed school of aviation (1927), the first department of geophysics in the Western Hemisphere (1925), and the first human heart transplant in the Midwest (1972). The university celebrated its bicentennial in 2017 with events including a Mass under the Gateway Arch.