AU traces its history back to a letter written by George
Washington, in which he expressed a desire for a "national
university" to be located in the nation's capital. AU was chartered by an act of the United States
Congress in 1893, nearly a century after Washington's death, and ground was broken in
1896. After some difficulties with funding, the first degrees were given out in 1916, and the first undergraduates were admitted in 1925.During both World War I and World War II, the university allowed the U.S. military to use some of its grounds for testing. In 1917, American University was divided
into two camps: Camp American University and Camp Leach. Camp American University became the birthplace of the United States'
chemical
weapons program, and chemical weapons were tested on the
grounds; this led to a major cleanup effort in the 1990s. Camp Leach was used to
research, develop and test modern camouflage techniques. During WWII, the
campus was home to the US Navy Bomb Disposal School and a WAVE barracks.American took over the previously unaffiliated Washington College of Law in 1949, and added a
business school and an international relations program in the 1950s.In the 1960s, the Department of Defense and the
Central Intelligence Agency operated a think
tank under the guise of Operation Camelot at American University.
The think tank was abandoned after the operation came to public attention.