Willamette University

The college was founded as the Oregon Institute by the missionary Jason Lee, who had arrived in what was then known as the Oregon Country in 1834 and had founded the Indian Manual Labor Institute for the education of the local Native Americans. Lee requested additional support for his mission, and received 53 additional volunteers in 1839, who arrived on the ship Lausanne. After a series of meetings in Lee's home, the by-laws were adopted and board of trustees elected and the institute was officially established on February 1, 1842. The Oregon Institute officially opened on August 13, 1844, with a total of five students and one teacher, Mrs. Chloe Clarke Willson. Lee served as the first President of the Board of Trustees, followed by David Leslie after Lee's death in 1845. Leslie would serve until his death in 1869. The original purpose of the institute was the education of the missionaries' children.

The original building of the institute was a three-story frame structure first occupied in 1844. At the time, it was one of the largest structures in the Pacific Northwest. It housed the first session of the state legislature to meet in Salem after the capital was moved there in 1851. The building burned down in 1872. In 1867, a new brick building was finished to house the school and named University Hall. The building was renamed as Waller Hall in 1912 to honor the Reverend Alvin F. Waller, and is now the oldest university building west of the Mississippi River still in use. The first president was Francis S. Hoyt, who served in that position from 1853 until 1860 and was replaced by Thomas Milton Gatch who is the only president of the school to serve as president two different times.

The name of the institution was changed to "Wallamet University" in 1852. The following year, the Oregon Territorial Legislature granted a charter to the university. The first graduate was Emily J. York, who received a degree as Mistress of English Literature in 1859. In 1866, the university established the first school of medicine in the Pacific Northwest. The current spelling of the university was adopted in 1870. In 1883, the university established the first law school in the Pacific Northwest during the presidency of Thomas Van Scoy. The school of medicine then merged with the University of Oregon in 1913 and is now Oregon Health and Science University.

In December 1941, the institution's football team traveled to Hawaii to play the University of Hawaiʻi. Many students accompanied the team by passenger ship to Oahu. The game was played on December 6. The following day, many of the Willamette students witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor from their hotels on Waikiki Beach. Their return trip was delayed by many weeks, and some of the students returned to Oregon by helping on ships transporting the wounded to the mainland. Many of the team members stayed with football players from Punahou School.

During World War II, Willamette was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission. Lausanne Hall, previously a women's residence, served as a "ship" for trainees between 1943 and 1945.

In 1965, Willamette and the Tokyo International University entered a sister-college relationship. The Tokyo International University in America, on Willamette University's campus, was completed in 1989.

Elizabeth Heaston, of the class of 1999, became the first female to play in a collegiate football game in 1997. In 2013, the Willamette community broke the world record for largest game of Red Light/Green Light with 1,060 players, and reclaimed the record in August 2015, with 1,203 players.

In September 2020, Willamette announced that it would merge with the Pacific Northwest College of Art. It finalized the merger on June 30, 2021. Willamette also attempted to merge with the Claremont School of Theology starting from 2017, but was blocked by a California court ruling in 2021. In December 2025, Willamette signed a letter of intent to merge with Pacific University. If completed, the combined institution would be the largest independent private university in Oregon.