One for the road
Download a copy of the Seek and Discover Illustration
Prefer a magnifying glass to a mouse? Download the PDF and start discovering!
Illustration by Mario Zucca
Discover Hopkins!
What started some 150 years ago with a simple idea—a university predicated on the discovery of knowledge—has grown from a small collection of buildings in downtown Baltimore into a global leader in learning and research. With more than 30,000 students engaged across nine academic divisions in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and beyond and more than 250,000 alumni around the world, Johns Hopkins is everywhere. It’s in our classrooms and laboratories, on our campuses, and in the knowledge and discoveries that all of you help bring to the world every day. Johns Hopkins University—seeking (and discovering) knowledge for the world since 1876.
Did you know?
Tread carefully! Legend has it that any applicant who steps on the university seal in the Gilman Hall foyer won’t be admitted, and any student who steps on it won’t graduate.
Barney, the beloved Boston terrier of JHU President Ron Daniels, enjoys long walks on Homewood campus quads (and possibly ice skating).
Johns Hopkins University will officially mark the 150th anniversary of its founding—its sesquicentennial—in 2026.
JHU’s Applied Physics Lab made history in 2022, partnering with NASA on the DART mission, in which a spacecraft altered the orbit of an asteroid by colliding with it.
The use of “Blue Jays” as the university mascot is thought to date to the 1920s, though JHU’s favorite feathered friend didn’t get an official name, Jay, until 2013.
The grassy hill behind the marble sign along Charles Street was once the front lawn of Homewood house. Originally known as the Bowl, it later came to be known as the Beach.
When the School of Medicine opened in 1889, it consisted of 17 buildings, including the iconic domed Billings Administration building. Only three of the original buildings remain.
Gilman Hall opened in 1915, the first major academic building on the Homewood campus, and until 1964 also served as the main campus library.
Homewood Field hosted its first Hopkins athletics event in October 1907, with JHU’s football team defeating a team of Hopkins football alumni, 11-5.
JHU’s new home in Washington, D.C., the Hopkins Bloomberg Center on Pennsylvania Avenue, opened in the fall of 2023.
The Hopkins Ice Rink has been a winter fixture since 2022, when JHU introduced a 6,000-square-foot pop-up rink at the Homewood campus tennis courts.
The Imagine Center opened in 2022 as home to JHU’s revolutionized approach to student career and life design.
Built in 1964 to accommodate the university’s growing collection of books and artifacts, the Milton S. Eisenhower Library has six levels, five of which are underground.
The FastForward U innovation space opened in 2018 and was renamed as the Pava Center in 2024 in honor of late tech entrepreneur Pava LaPere.
The Peabody Institute, founded in 1857 as the first conservatory in the U.S., officially became affiliated with JHU in 1977.
The Undergraduate Teaching Labs, which opened in 2013, was renamed in 2023 in honor of pioneering geologist Florence Bascom, the first woman to earn a PhD from Hopkins.
“From its earliest days, Johns Hopkins distinguished itself as a place devoted to discovery. Over the decades, while our university has grown and evolved—from a collection of buildings in downtown Baltimore to locations across our home city, in Washington, D.C., and on three continents—our core aim remains unchanged.
As this year draws to a close, we celebrate that spirit of discovery, which continues to animate us today, in our lecture halls and laboratories, across our campuses and communities. I am truly grateful to everyone who makes it possible—our faculty and staff, our students and alumni, our friends and supporters around the world. Johns Hopkins is a remarkable place fueled by remarkable people, bound by common purpose and part of an ongoing pursuit of discovery.
Thank you for all you do, and warmest wishes for a festive and restful holiday season.”
Ron Daniels
President
Share the sentiment:
Looking for previous years' messages? Check the archives for more.
Thank you archive
