John hopkins religion

History & Mission

The university takes its name from 19th-century Maryland philanthropist Johns Hopkins, an entrepreneur with Quaker roots who believed in improving public health and education in Baltimore and beyond.

Previously adopted accounts portray Johns Hopkins as an early abolitionist whose parents had freed the family’s enslaved people in the early 1800s. New research has uncovered census records that indicate enslaved people were among the individuals living and laboring in Johns Hopkins’ home in 1840 and 1850, with the latter document denoting Johns Hopkins as the slaveholder. Other new findings documented additional links between the Hopkins family and slavery, as well as indentured servitude.  Researchers are investigating these records in tandem with other archival documents to offer a more nuanced and complex understanding of the Hopkins family’s relationship with slavery. More information about the university’s investigation of this history is available at the Hopkins Retrospective website.

Mr. Hopkins, one of 11 children, m

The Sheridan Libraries

Johns himself left little in the way of personal papers, but the Sheridan Libraries do hold a small collection titled The Hopkins Family collection.

The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives also maintains a small collection of family papers, the Johns Hopkins Collection.

The Johns Hopkins Biographical Archive features a selection of digitized primary sources about Johns, including evidence that he owned enslaved people.

Biographical dictionary compilations also include articles on Johns. One of the more recent ones is in American National Biography. 

Johns Hopkins: A Silhouette was written in 1929 (repr. 2009) by Helen Hopkins Thom, a grand-niece of the founder. The work is based on anecdotes and reminiscences by her parents, aunts and uncle. It includes many unsubstantiated claims and inaccuracies, including the now-debunked assertion that Johns Hopkins did not own enslaved people. 

A biographical article, “Mr. Johns Hopkins,” was published in the Johns Hopkins Magazine in January 1974. A brief account of the

Johns Hopkins University

Private university in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

"JHU" redirects here. For other uses, see JHU (disambiguation).

Latin: Universitas Hopkinsiensis[1][2]
MottoVeritas vos liberabit (Latin)

Motto in English

"The truth will set you free"
TypePrivateresearch university
EstablishedFebruary 22, 1876; 148 years ago (February 22, 1876)
AccreditationMSCHE

Academic affiliations

Endowment$13.06 billion (FY2024)[3]
PresidentRonald J. Daniels
ProvostRay Jayawardhana

Total staff

27,300[4]
Students30,549 (2022)
Undergraduates5,318 (2022)[5]: 19 
Postgraduates25,231 (2022)[5]: 19 
Location

Baltimore

,

Maryland

,

United States


39°19′44″N76°37′13″W / 39.32889°N 76.62028°W / 39.32889; -76.62028
CampusLarge city[6], 140 acres (57 ha)
Other campuses
NewspaperThe Johns Hopkins News-Letter
ColorsHeritage blue and spirit b

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