Here are three recommended histories of Johns Hopkins University, all of which may be found in Special Collections and in the library shelves:

• A History of the University Founded by Johns Hopkins (1946), by John C. French, covers the first 70 years of our history. It is generally reliable and well-indexed.
• Pioneer: A History of the Johns Hopkins University, 1874-1889 (1960), by Hugh Hawkins, is a published version of the author’s dissertation. It is one of the best secondary sources for the period it covers.
• Johns Hopkins: Knowledge for the World (2000), by Mame Warren, is a history built around themes expressed in Daniel Coit Gilman’s 1876 Inaugural Address. This history includes an exhaustive timeline on all divisions of the University through 2000.

In addition to the above resources, Antero Pietila, Ghosts of Johns Hopkins: The Life and Legacy that Shaped an American City (2018), examines the history of the relationship between Johns Hopkins the man, the University he founded, and Baltimore, from the period Johns was alive to the time of publication.

To search the library catalog for all books and articles that include “Johns Hopkins University—History” as a subject, click here. Use the filters under “Refine Your Search” to narrow your results.

For more specific aspects of Hopkins History, see:

• Women at the Johns Hopkins University: A History (1986), by Julia B. Morgan, covers the history of women at Hopkins, going back to 1877, when the first woman applied for admission. The gradual acceptance of coeducation is documented here as well. Note that Morgan was Johns Hopkins University's first University Archivist.
• “Son of a Slave” (Johns Hopkins Magazine, June 1981), also by Julia Morgan, is about Kelly Miller, the first African-American to attend Hopkins in the 1880s. Until the 1940s, he remained the only full-time African-American Hopkins student.
• A Brief History of the Homewood Campus: Its Buildings, Monuments and Sculpture (1990; updated in 2010 and 2020 under the supervision of Archives staff) traces the development of the Homewood Campus, acquired in 1902 from primary donors William Keyser and William Wyman. This document also includes a summary of the original arts and sciences campus in west Baltimore, used from 1876 until 1916. You may download this resource as a PDF below.
• "Voices for Change: The History of Black Student Activism at Johns Hopkins University" (2008), by Adam Lovett, is an undergraduate research essay about the founding of the Black Student Union and provides an overview of race relations at Hopkins.