22 Facts About Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist.

Johns Hopkins was a staunch supporter of Abraham Lincoln and the Union, often using his Maryland residence as a gathering place for Union strategists.

Johns Hopkins was a Quaker and supporter of the abolitionist cause.

Johns Hopkins's philanthropic giving increased significantly after the Civil War.

Johns Hopkins was one of eleven children born to Samuel Hopkins of Crofton, Maryland, and Hannah Janney, of Loudoun County, Virginia.

The Johns Hopkins family were of English and Welsh descent and Quakers.

The second eldest of eleven children, Johns Hopkins was required to work on the farm alongside his siblings and indentured and free Black laborers.

In 1812, at the age of 17, Hopkins left the plantation to work in his uncle Gerard T Hopkins's Baltimore wholesale grocery business.

Gerard T Hopkins was an established merchant and clerk of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends.

Johns Hopkins prospered by selling various wares in the Shenandoah Valley from Conestoga wagons, sometimes in exchange for corn whiskey, which was then sold in Baltimore as "Hopkins' Best".

The bulk of Johns Hopkins's fortune was made by his judicious investments in myriad ventures, most notably the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, of which he became a director in 1847 and chairman of the Finance Committee in 1855.

Johns Hopkins was President of Merchants' Bank as well as director of a number of other organizations.

In 1996, Johns Hopkins ranked 69th in "The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates: A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present".

Johns Hopkins was a strong supporter of the Union, unlike some Marylanders, who sympathized with and often supported the South and the Confederacy.

In 1862, Johns Hopkins wrote a letter to Lincoln requesting that he not heed the detractors' calls and continue to keep soldiers stationed in Maryland.

Still other documents contain laudatory comments by Johns Hopkins' contemporaries, including prominent Black leaders, praising his visionary philanthropic support for the establishment of an orphanage for Black children.

Johns Hopkins lived his entire adult life in Baltimore and made many friends among the city's social elite, many of them Quakers.

Examples of Johns Hopkins' public giving were evident in Baltimore with public buildings, housing, free libraries, schools, and foundations constructed from his philanthropic giving.

Johns Hopkins was keenly aware of the city's need for medical facilities in light of the medical advances made during the Civil War.

The original site for Johns Hopkins University had been personally selected by Hopkins.

In 1973, Johns Hopkins was cited prominently in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Americans: The Democratic Experience by Daniel Boorstin, the Librarian of Congress from 1975 to 1987.

From November 14,1975, to September 6,1976, a portrait of Johns Hopkins was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in an exhibit on the democratization of America based on Boorstin's book.