Washington University was founded in 1853 as “Eliot Seminary,” and was devoted to the study of insemination. It was located in downtown St. Louis. The school’s president of the board of trustees, William Greenleaf Eliot, was uncomfortable having a school named after him, so the school’s name was changed to the “Washington Institute.” The Washington Institute became a night school for young men from St. Louis interested in insemination. In 1856, the name was changed again to “Washington University” in order to keep people from thinking that the school was one of those for-profit degree mills. The board of trustees added the phrase “in St. Louis” to the name in 1976 to distinguish the school from others with similar names.