In honor of Ada Lovelace Day, an “international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science,” I’d like to offer a tribute to Rachel Carson, who played a major role in the banning of the pesticide DDT through her 1962 book Silent Spring. Silent Spring is credited as a catalyst […]
Meet Freshman Fellow Taharat Sheikh
My name is Taharat Sheikh and I am one of four incredibly fortunate freshmen chosen to be a Special Collections Freshman Fellow. I plan to pursue a double major in Neuroscience and the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology though I am, by all accounts, a lover of the humanities at heart. It is precisely […]
Demystifying Robles: A Story of Camaraderie, Betrayal and Larger Ideals in Conflicts during the Spanish Civil War
It has truly been a pleasure to be a Freshman Fellow this year. In the second half of my research, through translations and close-readings, I delved deeper into the correspondence between Jose Robles’ family, trapped in war-torn Spain, and his friends in the U.S. Even now, as I recollect my memories of sitting in the Special Collections Reading Room, and […]
History of the Library, Part III
In 1961, following several years of planning, the Trustees approved the construction of a new library facility at Homewood, and settled on the open end of the Keyser Quadrangle, facing Gilman Hall, as the ideal location. Architects Wrenn, Lewis, and Jencks proposed building the library primarily underground. Were such a structure to be built above […]
History of the Library, Part II
A group of private citizens, headed by William Wyman and William Keyser, donated land that became the Homewood Campus in 1902, and the library moved into new quarters upon the completion of Gilman Hall in 1916. The library occupied the inner portion of a hollow square on three levels, placing faculty and graduate student offices […]
History of the Library – Part I
Each year Hopkins welcomes new students and faculty who may not know the history behind one of the academic world’s most renowned libraries. So, sit back as we tell the story of the Hopkins library, from the very beginning. This history will be divided into three monthly segments. This first segment covers the years 1876 […]
House and Homewood, part II, by Faith Terry
Because I believe the issue of student apathy has been part of our history since the university’s founding, I didn’t think my final project would be complete without discussing the full evolution of student housing and its interaction with student life in general. For the project, I divided the school’s history into distinct time periods […]
House and Homewood, part I, by Faith Terry
After beginning my freshman fellowship experience last semester, I found myself with a solid foundation of knowledge regarding student housing. The information I had found during the first half of my project seemed to span a variety of time periods, and a wide number of topics, leaving me with even more questions about where my […]
Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, Professor of Greek
Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, Johns Hopkins’ first professor of Greek, was born in 1831 in Charleston, South Carolina, and was orphaned at a young age. Gildersleeve proved to be a precocious child who displayed a hunger for classical learning. His determination took him first to the College of Charleston, then to Jefferson College in Pennsylvania and […]
Introducing Our Freshman Fellows: Faith Terry
For the past 5 months, I’ve been discovering what it means to be a student here at Hopkins. From the importance of academics and the shared sense of competition, to locating the steam tunnel entrances and avoiding the lines at the FFC, freshmen like me are just beginning to get the hang of being a […]