Featured Stories

This gallery brings together diverse stories, images, and documents shared by the Hopkins community. It includes oral histories as well as materials submitted by the community through this website.

What’s your Hopkins story? Submit the Contribute Your Story form below to share it with us.

  • A group of fair skinned female students stand on the steps of a brick building, laughing and smiling together.
    Challenges for the First Women Undergraduates
    Helen Blumberg
    Close

    Challenges for the First Women Undergraduates

    A group of fair skinned female students stand on the steps of a brick building, laughing and smiling together.
    It was a small class, perhaps twelve people, four or five women. He remembered all the men’s names and could never remember ours. Just one of those things you think there is a problem here, it’s an attitude problem. Ultimately, he turned out to be a very supportive professor of what I was doing, but it was a barrier, a barrier that should not have been there to start with.
    -Helen Blumberg
    1970s, Academics, Alumni, Homewood campus, Student Life, women
  • In fancy script "Conferring of Degrees" and in regular type "at the close of the 102nd Academic Year The Johns Hopkins University".
    A Memorable Commencement Speech
    Curtis Chubb
    Close

    A Memorable Commencement Speech

    In fancy script "Conferring of Degrees" and in regular type "at the close of the 102nd Academic Year The Johns Hopkins University".

    By Curtis Chubb

    Without the honor of attending Hopkins and being awarded a Ph.D. from the School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1978, my life would not have been as full as it has been.

    I owe Hopkins.

    I will never forget the 1978 commencement ceremonies.  Dr. Steven Muller was President.  Reverend Chester Wickwire was there (he was the chaplain for my marriage ceremony the year before).  Dr. Larry Ewing was there (he was my Mentor and Best Friend ever).  All great humans – all are missed.

    The speaker for the ceremonies was Dr. John R. Evans.

    Usually I remember little about what commencement speakers say – but one thing that Dr. Evans said struck me as important at the time – and the concept he expressed has stuck in my mind ever since that day over 37 years ago.

    He said that what you took away from Hopkins could be compared to being on a Lufthansa jet that was preparing to crash and the flight attendant announcing, “If you listened to the instructions given at the beginning of the flight, the nearest land is due east.  If you did not listen to the instructions, thank you for flying Lufthansa.”

    I listened to what I learned at Hopkins.

    1970s, Alumni, Events, School of Public Health, Student Life, user-generated content
  • Cover with drawing of a Hopkins lacrosse player the words Hopkins vs Army April 24th 1926 Homewood below him.
    Discovering a Bit of Campus History in an Attic
    Patrick Russell
    Close

    Discovering a Bit of Campus History in an Attic

    Cover with drawing of a Hopkins lacrosse player the words Hopkins vs Army April 24th 1926 Homewood below him.
    By Patrick Russell

    For many years, the Steinwald Alumni House at 3211 North Charles Street housed the Office of Alumni Relations and Annual Fund. There was an attic that no staff member had ventured up to see, until I did. I went up there and found old posters, old Homecoming signs, pennants and reunion regalia. And then I found this. An old lacrosse game program in tact and in great condition. Got it framed.

    -Patrick Russell ’89, Men’s Lacrosse Player

    Story and image contributed in 2015.

    1920s, 1980s, Alumni, Athletics, Homewood campus, Student Life, user-generated content
  • Photos of people in China walking down a street with Banners red banners overhead.
    Nanjing in the Wake of Tiananmen Square
    Priscilla Mason
    Close

    Nanjing in the Wake of Tiananmen Square

    Photos of people in China walking down a street with Banners red banners overhead.
    There is to be no interference with our faculty in teaching. There is to be no interference with our students, Chinese or American. There is to be no interference with library materials shipped in. If any of these things happen, we’re gone.
    – Priscilla Mason
    1980s
  • Cartoon Blue Jay runs wears a white sweaters and runs with a lacrosse stick.
    Creating the Cartoon Blue Jay
    Neil Grauer
    Close

    Creating the Cartoon Blue Jay

    Cartoon Blue Jay runs wears a white sweaters and runs with a lacrosse stick.
    I know of some students in the late ’80s and early ’90s who had it tattooed on them. I did not know this was going to happen. I found out about it subsequently, and initially I was horrified. Then I decided, well, maybe it’s a tribute of sort and I’ll be with those guys long after I’m gone. I’ll be under their skin while I’m under the ground.
    – Neil Grauer
    1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, Alumni, Athletics, Homewood campus, Student Life
  • Logo for WJHU. Black panther silhouette in circle with letters W-J-H-U.
    WJHU in the 1960s
    Ronald F. Nichols
    Close

    WJHU in the 1960s

    Logo for WJHU. Black panther silhouette in circle with letters W-J-H-U.
    By Ronald F. Nichols

    WJHU was a student run radio station broadcasting at an amazing 0.25 watts, 830 on the AM dial, across the Residence Halls. As the only person from Oklahoma enrolled at Hopkins (I referred to myself as “the token Okie”), I joined the WJHU student staff as Cousin Okie. Both semesters, I broadcast at 5:30am MWF an hour and a half show before heading off to freshman chemistry. During second semester, I also picked up a 4pm hour long show immediately before Mr. T (Baird Thompson). My show was an eclectic mix of music – one could hear Ferlin Husky, followed by the Iron Butterfly, followed by Johnny Cash, etc.

    I also served as the WJHU record librarian that year. The attached flyer was posted across campus in October 1969. I am now in contact with three other former WJHU DJs who are mentioned on that poster – Russ Jones (Charlie Brown), Lang Sturgeon (Fish), and Baird Thompson (Mr. T).

    Story and image contributed in 2014.

    Read
    1960s, Homewood campus, Student Life, user-generated content
  • Mike Weisfeldt on what makes Hopkins Medicine unique
    Mike Weisfeldt
    Close

    Mike Weisfeldt on what makes Hopkins Medicine unique

    Watch
    1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, Administration, Alumni, Baltimore, East Baltimore, Faculty, Hospital, School of Medicine
  • A photo angled up of a dark skinned young man wearing a lap coat and holding a molecule structure with both of his hands.
    The First African-American Student in Arts and Sciences
    Ernest Bates
    Close

    The First African-American Student in Arts and Sciences

    A photo angled up of a dark skinned young man wearing a lap coat and holding a molecule structure with both of his hands.
    He said, “Well, Ernie, we thought that that was a bit much, to ask a student, at this point, to ask a white student to room with you. We just felt that that wouldn’t be fair to the student, because this is something new, and we’re trying to minimize the problems that it might have, so if you don’t mind, you will not have a roommate.”
    -Ernest Bates
    Listen
    1950s, Alumni, Arts and Sciences, Homewood campus, Student Life

Donate Material to the University Archives

The Office of the President and the Ferdinand Hamburger Archives are eager to preserve your memories of your experience at the university – events you attended, organizations you were part of, friendships you formed, and anything else that was important to your experience of Johns Hopkins University.

If you have any items you’d like to consider donating to the archives, or a story you’d like to share with us, please click the Submit Materials button below or email Hopkins Retrospective at hopkinsretro@jhu.edu.