The Roman Catholic academic/educational religious order of the School Sisters of Notre Dame founded the school in 1873. It originally established and named the "Notre Dame of Maryland Preparatory School and Collegiate Institute". The N.D.M.U. now is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States.Notre Dame of Maryland University is an independent, Catholic-affiliated, liberal arts college located within the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It contains a Women's College and part-time coeducational degree programs for women and men.