Johns Hopkins University
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Johns Hopkins University. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an American educational institution in Baltimore, Md.; incorporated in 1867, during the lifetime of the founder, but not formally opened till 1876, after his death. Johns Hopkins left the greater part of his fortune to the university, the endowment of which is over $3,000,000. The hospital maintained in connection with the institution is equally liberally endowed. Post-graduate study forms the leading feature of the course of inthe c struction, though other courses are given. cour Several of the most important buildings mportant e in 1920. were destroyed by fire in 1920. The degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Dochelor of A tor of Philosophy and Doctor of Medicine are conferred. Advanced and graduate students have elective courses, but each instructor has a discretion of his own with regard to admission to his classes. It reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors, 334; students, 2,969; volumes in the library, 94,000; productive funds, $15,000,000; income, 5,000,000; $928,000; president, Frank J. Goodnow, LL.D.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a celebrated institution of learning, situated at Baltimore. It was founded in 1873 by a wealthy merchant of the name who left $3,500,000 for the purpose. Other citizens have given $1,000,000. The institution was opened to students in 1876. From the first much attention has been paid to graduate work, that is, to the instruction of advanced students who have already completed the ordinary college course. To encourage this class of students twenty fellowships are awarded each year to young men of promise who intend a life of scholarship. They yield the holders $500 each. The faculty is able. The grounds, buildings, libraries, laboratories, and scientific collections are on a scale befitting a great institution of learning. See Baltimore
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 the university counted 2,969 students, 94,000 library volumes and an income of $928,000, and had just lost buildings to a fire; Aiton's in 1910 still pictured it as a graduate school for "young men of promise" on $500 fellowships. The campus itself moved north to Homewood in the 1910s, and the undergraduate college, all-male in both accounts, admitted women fully in 1970. Today Hopkins enrolls roughly 30,000 students across its divisions and has been the top American university for research spending for over forty years, exceeding $3 billion a year, much of it federal. Michael Bloomberg's gifts have transformed the endowment described here as "over $3,000,000", including $1.8 billion for undergraduate financial aid in 2018; the affiliated hospital, praised as "equally liberally endowed", became one of the world's best-known medical centers, and its COVID-19 case dashboard was watched globally in 2020.
Written for this edition, 2026.