WELCOME TO HOPKINS RETROSPECTIVE

Background

Hopkins Retrospective is a universitywide public history initiative launched in 2013 and sponsored by the Office of the President.  

We are charged with exploring the history of Johns Hopkins University and sharing it with our communities in meaningful ways. The program is coordinated by archivists and historians embedded in the university’s library. We strive to more deeply understand our past and weave our collective history into the university experience. 

About Hopkins Retrospective

Colorized photo of Gilman Hall, showing its top two floors and columned entrance and clock tower.
Scan of census records with list of names and households.

Reexamining Hopkins History

Spotlighted Initiative

The reexamining history initiative seeks to explore and publicly present archival material that helps to inform the story of our founder, Johns Hopkins and his family, including information about their relationship to the institution of slavery. As America’s first research university, Johns Hopkins is committed to the pursuit of knowledge and to using the tools of academic research to understand and examine our past.

We are at the beginning of learning more about Johns Hopkins’ life as we develop a deeper, more extensive archival record. We hope that others – our students, faculty, and staff as well as our neighbors in Baltimore – will help contribute to this work of gathering and sharing documents and interpreting them.

Archival Photograph Collections

More Hopkins History

You can find high-quality images across several repositories affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. Learn more about how to search and find the images you need below at the Ferdinand Hamburger University ArchivesThe Johns Hopkins Chesney Archives, the Peabody Archives of the Arthur Friedheim Library, and more.

View Archival Photos

A group of people, mixed with some sitting and most standing, hold guitars as they happily converse with each other.