Victoria Harms’ essay revisits the foundational mythologies of Johns Hopkins University (JHU) by critically tracing the long history of exclusion, merit, and institutional identity across lines of race, gender, class, and religion. She examines how JHU’s early adoption of the German research university model coexisted with entrenched structures of elitism and systematic exclusion—from barring women and Black students to implementing antisemitic admissions policies. The article foregrounds the…