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About This Collection
This collection of photographs documents the early history of American University and its campus in northwest Washington D.C., near Ward Circle, at the intersection of Massachusetts and Nebraska Avenues. The Collection includes photographs of Fort Gaines, the Civil War era Union Army fortification which was on the site that later became the American University campus. Photographs trace the physical development of the campus from the groundbreaking for its first building in 1896, through rapid growth in the 1920's, up to the mid 1960's. The Collection includes photographs from World War I when the campus housed the U.S. Army's Camp Leach and Camp AU and World War II when the campus housed the U.S. Navy Bomb Disposal School and an American Red Cross school for nurses. There are photographs of the University's founders, chancellors and presidents and of prominent officials who visited the campus, including Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Also included are photographs of commencement ceremonies from 1916 through 1970.
For further information, please contact American University Archives and Special Collections at 202-885-3256, or send an email to archives@american.edu.
