University of Washington, Department of History records, 1925-2004

Professor J. Allen Smith recommended the creation of the Department of History and Political Science in 1897. A year later, the Chair of History was created, and Edmond S. Meany elected as American History professor. In 1919, the department was changed to being named the Department of History. As a department, the History Department has adapted to demands from students and worked in close cooperation with other programs such as the field studies, geography, and religion departments. One such example is teaching a course called "World at War" throughout the Second World War to make sense of the conflict.

The department was reorganized in 1968 to accommodate more faculty in a more rigid hierarchy. This came after a large growth phase in the Department of History between 1954 and 1967 when the faculty in the department rose from 12 to 33. During this growth phase, two M.A. programs were added in 1957.

The department now offers both a major and minor track as well as a M.A. and Ph.D. program. Students can focus their studies on the various fields within the Department of History: Ancient and Medieval, Comparative and Transregional, Africa and the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Modern Europe, and North America. In addition, the Department of History supports multiple Digital History projects to further research and accessibility to historical research materials.