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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · 7d

"On October 21, Homewood Museum will open If Homewood’s Walls Could Talk: A History of an American House, a new exhibition exploring the house’s full 224-year history."

blogs.library.jhu.edu/2025/10/new-...

A black and white photo of a grand door entrance and its entrance hall. Two sets of wooden doors open out onto a grassy and tree-covered lawn. The transoms above each door arch over with an intricate design that looks like decorative spokes on wheels.

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · 7d

Hopkins Retrospective was also able to share the work we do through two sessions at NCPH 2025 - “Engaging Communities in Critical University Histories” and “Solidarity in Our Storytelling: Lessons in Collaborative Historiography.” Read more about both now at blogs.library.jhu.edu.

A graphic with the title of the written piece, “Hopkins Retrospective Team Attends National Council on Public History: Solidarity in Montreal, Part 2”. A photo in the middle shows a portrait of a dark-skinned woman with an afro with a falcon sitting in her hand. It has been painted as a mural on the side of a building using vibrant purples, blues, red, and gold colors.

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Hopkins Medical Archives @jhmedarchives.bsky.social · 12d

Staff dining and caffeinating from the vending machines in the Johns Hopkins Hospital employee lounge, circa 1960. Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Office of Public Affairs Photograph Collection. #NationalCoffeeDay ☕

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · 11d

Was Gilman Hall the first building constructed on Homewood campus? Can you guess when a photo was taken by what someone is wearing? Test out your university history skills at Hop Into History this 10/02 on Keyser Quad from 11 AM – 2 PM. We’ll also have some prizes and light snacks for you to grab.

A woman in her thirties wearing a bright yellow jacket stands in front of a whiteboard, pointing to it while two younger women look at the board in excitement. They stand outside on a brick walkway with large trees shading them. In the foreground is a table with cookies and bags of chips.

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · 15d

This year’s NCPH conference centered on the theme of Solidarity/Solidarité, echoing historical and contemporary calls for worker solidarity. Read about Hopkins Retrospective’s experience at the conference, published earlier this week.

https://blogs.library.jhu.edu/

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · 23d

It’s Thinking About You Week, and we’ve been thinking about the MSE Library (@jhulibraries.bsky.social)! It’s been under construction for over a year now, and we can’t help but wonder how it’s going.

A construction update was published this summer:

blogs.library.jhu.edu/2025/07/mse-...

MSE Renovation Marks a Year of Milestones - The Sheridan Libraries & University Museums Blog

A year into the construction phase of the Milton S. Eisenhower renovation project, here are four major milestones to celebrate.

blogs.library.jhu.edu

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Full Story Baltimore @fullstorybaltimore.tours · Sep 2

Thanks to @ajseyler.bsky.social of @hopkinsretro.bsky.social for a great tour of the Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus today! 🧡

A tour guide stands and speaks with a portable loudspeaker in front of Gilman Hall at JHU in Baltimore on a sunny day.

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Aug 27

The Billie Holiday Center has hosted the event every year with FREE jazz performances, local food and art vendors, and Black archive repositories. This year, join them on September 6 from 1 PM to 6 PM!

sites.krieger.jhu.edu/billie-holid...

A poster for the 7th Annual Billie Holiday Jazz in the Square. The event will be held on September 6, 2025 with food, music, and vendors. The flier lists several artists along with the promise of a “surprise special guest”. The location listed is Historic Lafayette Square Park. The time listed is 1 PM – 6PM. Behind the text is a black and white cutout of Billie Holiday over a blue background.

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Aug 27

Additionally, Billie Holiday lived on Argyle Avenue, just off of Lafayette, and nearby the Royal Theater (1922 – 1971) was the city’s “fountainhead of…jazz heritage”.

On the left a wire display holds up about a dozen black and white photographs. Nearby and further back in the photo, several tents are set up in the grass where several people stand around vendor tables, out of focus.

A man with a medium skin tone closes his eyes as he passionately plays a saxophone. He wears a white and gray vertical striped button-up shirt.

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Aug 27

The Annual Billie Holiday Jazz in the Square is strategically located in a neighborhood that has been an anchor of Baltimore’s African American religious life, only a few blocks away from two of the oldest African American Christian congregations in the U.S.

: On the left, Mayor Brandon Scott, a young dark-skin man stands on a stage next to a microphone stand. He wears a shirt that reads “to my black people, I love you”. Next to him on the right, a medium-dark-skinned woman smiles and wears a patterned yellow and white dress. She holds up a folder revealing a certificate, and in her other arm, she holds a bouquet.

A man with medium-dark skin tone plays a trumpet. He wears a blue, green, white, and red vertical striped button-up shirt.

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Aug 27

Jazz, community, history, and a lot of love have been filling the Historic Lafayette Square Park since 2019.

(All photos in this thread are from the 2022 Billie Holiday Jazz in Lafayette Square, photographed by Will Kirk.)

Eleven people standing together and smiling, standing in front of several vendor stands and tents outdoors in a park.

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Aug 18

You can also check out this 2022 Hub article about the Library Service Center and other off-site storage facilities managed by Hopkins staff.

hub.jhu.edu/2022/10/05/j...

Holding on to Hopkins' history

At the university's Library Services Center, a small but mighty team fields requests about 140 requests per day for more than 2 million archival items

hub.jhu.edu

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Aug 18

Today, off-site storage facilities, hundreds of materials are moved between campuses weekly through an efficient system serviced by many Hopkins affiliates. If you ever get the chance to see these library staff members who are always on the move, send a thank you their way when you do!

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Aug 18

Even in the university’s earliest days, librarians found ways to get books across campuses. In a 1910 News-Letter article, the head librarian mentions, “the…plying of a messenger between McCoy Hall and Medical School on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons [facilitating] the interchange of books”.

A cropped portion of an aged newspaper. The text visible reads, “…To our simple code of rules, applied with good will and candor, I hope it is not unjust to attribute the improved spirit de corps in the library, and even the physical aspect of things, perhaps, is a bit more inviting, though not much cleaner to be sure. The reserved shelves seem to be appreciated, with their quick charging. For the revolutionized library our debt is large to Prof. C. M. Andrews, uniformly so zealous and cooperative. The regular plying of messenger between McCoy Hall and the Medical School on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons facilitates the interchange of books. The display of new books in the Main Library by the Press has been welcomed by many”.

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Aug 18

It’s International Delivery Driver Appreciation Day, and we couldn’t be any more grateful for the amazing staff who deliver books and archival material to a campus near you!

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Erin Goley @goleylab.bsky.social · Aug 17

Beautiful mural honoring Henrietta Lacks painted by Baltimore community members popped up near Hopkins med campus recently.

Colorful mural painted on the side of a building with the likeness of Henrietta Lacks and the words “HeLa” and “Middle East” on it.

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Aug 14

In February, former Hugh Hawkins fellow Aurora J. Grutman published her article in BMC Medical Education on her research titled, "Voices of change: experiences of early women urology residents — a single institution qualitative research study".

bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Voices of change: experiences of early women urology residents — a single institution qualitative research study - BMC Medical Education

Objective To understand the experiences of early women urology residents at a single institution, as told in their own words. Methods A convenience sample of women residents who trained at the Brady U...

bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com

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Hopkins Medical Archives @jhmedarchives.bsky.social · Aug 8

A beautiful day on the Johns Hopkins Mt. Washington campus! 🌺🌼🌻

Mt. Washington campus fountain and octagon building

flowering tree outside of McAuley Hall on JHU Mt. Washington campus

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Aug 11

Libraries Team Wins Discovery Award for Innovative Curating and Archiving Black Baltimore Project: blogs.library.jhu.edu/2025/07/libr...

Libraries Team Wins Discovery Award for Innovative Curating and Archiving Black Baltimore Project – The Sheridan Libraries & University Museums Blog

blogs.library.jhu.edu

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Johns Hopkins University Libraries @jhulibraries.bsky.social · Aug 7

Attention JHU Class of 2029!
⁠
Want to research with our Special Collections department? You get to handle rare objects, books, maps, and ephemera while being mentored by one of our fabulous archivists and librarians!⁠
⁠
Attend the HOP 101 session on 8/21 to learn more! bit.ly/jhufirstyearfellows

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Full Story Baltimore @fullstorybaltimore.tours · Aug 2

Oh right, we have a new tour coming out soon!! Developed in collaboration with @hopkinsretro.bsky.social 💙 Spicier, spookier, and even more deeply researched than the first installment of this tour series...

Full Story Baltimore @fullstorybaltimore.tours · Jul 9

Ticket booking is live for the new "Baltimore's Confederate Shadows: Wyman Park & Charles Village" tour!! Come join us starting in mid-August (after the weather cools down a little bit): fullstorybaltimore.tours/our-tours/#c...

Our Tours

Current tours: Regularly scheduled: Revolution in Baltimore Town: The Tour Premiered April 19, 2025 Baltimore says NO KINGS! Get ready for an imaginative tour of downtown & the inner harbor, fu…

fullstorybaltimore.tours

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Hopkins Medical Archives @jhmedarchives.bsky.social · Aug 1

In a recent accession, we found this 1918 letter fastened together using a metal nail! Interesting, but not good for archival preservation! The letter was written during Dr. Edwards A. Park's time serving with the American Red Cross in France during WWI.

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Johns Hopkins University Libraries @jhulibraries.bsky.social · Jul 30

Attention incoming Blue Jays! Want to tour the library spaces on campus? Join us August 22nd at the BLC Patio at 2:00, 2:45. and 4:14 PM to get a personalized tour of our fantastic study spaces with Librarian for English, Philosophy, and Special Collections Student Engagement Heidi Herr.

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dr. eerie katherine @actualkatherine.bsky.social · Jul 31

Also, in Baltimore, you can do cool things like hear the below-mentioned Ken Kolodner playing hammer dulcimer (and hammer mbira!!) at free concerts in parks in Bolton Hill :)

Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Jul 31

Have you ever heard the alluring sound of the viola da gamba? Or have you ever seen a krumhorn and wondered if someone is playing out of an upside-down cane?

The Baltimore Consort and Pro Musica Rara members holding treble viol, flute, lute, cittern, bandora, and bass viol, 1985.

A black and white photo of four men in tuxes and bowties standing against a bookshelf and a velvet curtain. Two women sit in the front row, wearing dark formal dresses. Each person holds an instrument in their hands. They hold a treble viol, a flute, a lute, a cittern, a bandora, and a bass viol.

Peabody Faculty Member Philip Kolker plays his baroque bassoon with other early instruments laid out on a piano in front of him, including a krumhorn, 1989.

A man standing in front of a harpsichord with several wooden instruments laid on top of it. He plays a bassoon, a large instrument that is more than half of his height. The other pieces of the piano look like different mouthpieces and a crumhorn, a curved wooden wind instrument.

A group shot of Helicon, an instrumental trio that include alumni Chris Norman and Ken Kolodner. They hold from left to right a flute, a cittern, and a hammered dulcimer, 1990.

A newspaper describing Helicon, an instrumental trio composed of Chris Norman, Ken Kolodner, and Robin Bullock. The first is an alumnus of Peabody and the second an alumnus of Johns Hopkins University. The clipping also advertises their Winter Solstice Concert and the release of their third album, The Titan.

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Hopkins Retrospective @hopkinsretro.bsky.social · Jul 31

Momentum and enthusiasm were built for the ensemble in the early 80s, as evidenced by the commuting of musicians from Maine, Pennsylvania, and California to play for the Baltimore Consort and Pro Musica Rara, an early music ensemble based in Baltimore, which included Peabody faculty.

An excerpt of an article on early music at Peabody in the Johns Hopkins Peabody News, 1985.

An excerpt from a news article about early music specialists. One paragraph describes Rod Regier's attempt to build an instrument with boiled cow bones being stolen by neighborhood dogs. Another paragraph describes Shirley Mathews, a Peabody faculty member who commutes from Maine once a week to teach and helps Regier with building instruments. Due to their efforts, Peabody students have access to various early music instruments.

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