Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (JHU), founded in 1876 in Baltimore, Maryland, has long been considered the most “German” university of all American universities. Nearly all of its first professors and associates had attended German universities, and several of them had received their PhDs at a German institution.
Among them were scholars who established new fields and disciplines of study, such as the classicist Basil L. Gildersleeve, the mathematician James J. Sylvester, the chemist Ira Remsen, the physicist Henry A. Rowland, and the psychologist G. Stanley Hall.The first president of the university, Daniel C. Gilman, strived to establish his
institution, which had been founded by a bequest of Johns Hopkins in 1873, as the first research university on American soil. Therefore, it did not focus on the education and training of undergraduate students and the establishment of a liberal culture, but rather on graduate students and their preparation for scientific research. Furthermore, professors at JHU were encouraged to independently pursue their own research projects. In addition, university-based scholarly journals, such as the American Journal of Mathematics, were established to provide professors and PhD candidates with an outlet for publishing their findings. The creation of a university press was part of the same strategy. Postdoctoral positions
Gilman Hall, Johns Hopkins University. Founded in 1876 in Baltimore, JHU has long been considered the most “German” of all American universities. (New York Public Library)
were created to provide research opportunities for recent graduates from Johns Hopkins and other universities. The departmental library system, as well as the seminar, distinguished JHU from traditional American universities and colleges.
“Associations” were established to give advanced students, professors, and an invited audience a podium for discussing and presenting their research. Some of these structures were characteristic for German universities in the second half of the nineteenth century, but JHU was the first American institution to introduce them into American academia, although they had been modified and transformed to fit an American context.Its emphasis on research, professional training, and expansion of knowledge gave JHU a leading position in the reform of American higher education. It set new standards for academic careers and doctoral programs. Because a large number of JHU graduates received appointments at other universities, the reform of higher education spread all over the country. Alumni of JHU occupied leading positions in this transformation process and reformed their universities following the model of JHU. Today, many consider JHU a “pioneer” in the history of the American university system (Hawkins 1960). However, JHU was not progressive when it came to women’s education. Only in 1970 did the university begin accepting female students and ended the tradition of the all-male undergraduate body.
Gabriele Lingelbach
References and Further Reading
Hawkins, Hugh. Pioneer: A History of the Johns Hopkins University, 1874—1889. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1960.
Schmidt, John C. Johns Hopkins: Portrait of a University. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1986.