In December 1979, Dorothy Bullitt, a prominent Seattle civic and business leader, member of the Board of Regents of the University of Washington from 1958 to 1965, and its president in 1962 and 1963, signed a gift agreement to create the Bullitt Chair in American History, the first fully endowed chair by a private source at the University of Washington.  The chair was established with a gift of 20,000 shares of King Broadcasting Company preferred stock with the stipulation that it would be maintained so long as history is taught at the University of Washington or until the fund has been exhausted.  In January 1991, at the request of the Bullitt Family, the name of the chair was formally changed to the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Chair of American History.

Visiting Bullitt Chair Historians, 1981-1988 (specialization in parenthesis): 

• Henry Steele Commager (U.S. Political), Winter-Spring, 1981
• Frank Freidel (Franklin Roosevelt), 1981-1986
• Anne Firor Scott (Women’s History, Southern History) October, 1986.
• John Hope Franklin (U.S. South) February, 1987
• Robert L. Middlekauff  (American Colonial), October, 1987
• Francis Paul Prucha (U.S. Indian Policy), Autumn, 1988

Resident Bullitt Chair Historians since 1988

• Richard Kirkendall (20th Century U.S., Agricultural), 1988 -1998
• Quintard Taylor (African American, U.S. West) 1999 -