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Today's featured article

Healy Hall is the school's most iconic building.

Georgetown University is a private, Roman Catholic, research university, located in Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood. Father John Carroll founded the school in 1789, though its roots extend back to 1634. While the school struggled financially in its early years, Georgetown expanded into a branched university after the U.S. Civil War under the leadership of university president Patrick Francis Healy. Georgetown is both the oldest Roman Catholic and oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Its religious heritage is defining for Georgetown's identity, but has at times been controversial. Georgetown's three urban campuses feature traditional collegiate architecture and layout, but prize their green spaces and environmental commitment. The main campus is known for Healy Hall, designated a National Historic Landmark. Academically, Georgetown is divided into four undergraduate schools and four graduate schools, with nationally recognized programs and faculty in international relations, law, and medicine. The student body is noted for its pluralism and political activism, as well as its sizable international contingent. Campus groups include the nation's oldest student dramatic society and the largest student corporation. Georgetown's most notable alumni, such as former President Bill Clinton, served in various levels of government in the United States and abroad. The Georgetown athletics teams are nicknamed "the Hoyas," made famous by their men's basketball team, which leads the Big East Conference with seven tournament championships. (more...)

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Ethel Smyth

Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth's extensive body of work includes the Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra, and the Mass in D. Her opera The Wreckers is considered by some critics to be the "most important English opera composed during the period between Purcell and Britten". This photograph of Smyth was taken in 1922.

Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden

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